Courtesy Stone Brewing Co.
Stone Brewing operates two restaurant-and-beer-garden complexes in California, including this one in Escondido, and will build one in Richmond, Va.

Breweries used to be shunned as nuisances. Now, politicians are courting them, as the largest craft brewers in the West seek East Coast base camps.
Virginia was slow getting into the game, losing Sierra Nevada Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Oskar Blues to neighboring North Carolina before passing Senate Bill 604 in 2012. That measure allowed breweries to operate on-site taprooms and made the state much more attractive to out-of-town beermakers.
Last October, reps of San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing joined state and local officials, including Mayor William D. Sessoms Jr., in hoisting the first shovels full of earth in an empty field in Virginia Beach that by spring 2016 will be home to a 100,000-barrel-a-year brewery with a 4,000-square-foot tasting room and one-acre beer garden.
On March 2, the Richmond City Council approved a land transfer that will pave the way for an immense Stone Brewing complex to materialize, step by step, along the James River. The California-based brewery will fire up its kettles in early 2016, and a 30,000-square-foot restaurant and beer garden — the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens — will follow after the brewery is functional.
“This competitive, high-profile project really puts Virginia on the map and cements our standing as a serious player in the craft beer industry,” crowed Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe when Stone announced the project last fall.
In a controversial sweetheart deal, Stone will receive a $31 million incentive package from the city in the form of general obligation bonds, plus a $7 million in state and local grants. What’s in it for Richmond? The prospect of 288 jobs plus an army of tourists who, according to Stone chief executive Greg Koch, “will spend money on hotel stays, local shops and local restaurants.” (The original Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens in Escondido, Calif., draws more than 600,000 visitors a year.) Plus, there’s “the benefit of us going into a decades-long neglected part of town, where we expect to spark additional development.”
What will Green Flash and Stone brew? Pretty much the same beers they make in Southern California. Both are noted for their piquant, hop-forward pale ales. Will 3,000 additional miles from the hop fields of the Pacific Northwest affect quality? Koch and Green Flash chief executive Mike Hinkley dismiss that possibility: Both say they use pelletized hops that are vacuum-sealed and refrigerated to keep them fresh until the next hop harvest.
Koch and Hinkley stress that their branch plants will mean fresher and cheaper beer for their East Coast fans. As of Feb. 1, Green Flash has been eating freight costs to the state of Virginia, dropping the price of a six-pack of West Coast IPA from about $12 to $10. “We intend to be local right now, at least from a price standpoint,” says Hinkley.
But Virginia isn’t a beer desert. As of March 9, there were 104 licensed breweries in the commonwealth, according to Cassidy Rasnick of the Virginia Manufacturers Association.
How do they see Green Flash and Stone: as comrades or carpetbaggers?
“Maybe we should extend them an olive branch,” suggests brewmaster Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone Brewing in Roseland and Lexington. “We did a beer with Green Flash last year, East West India Pale Lager, that we released in 16-ounce cans. That was our idea: Let’s welcome them to Virginia.”
He admits that he can understand Richmond brewers grumbling about the deal Stone got, but adds, “Stone isn’t just another start-up. It’s a huge entity. They’re bringing lot of jobs and revenue to the city.”
Eric McKay, founder of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, says that “So far, our fellow Virginia brewers have expressed a mixture of trepidation and optimism.
“Stone brews more beer than the 100-plus homegrown Virginia craft breweries combined, representing a daunting scale for an imported competitor,” McKay says. “On the other hand, craft brewers of all sizes can achieve great things when working together.” Craft beer has only about a 3 percent share of the Virginia market, he notes, leaving “plenty of room for growth.”
Koch also sees great potential. “When we opened in San Diego in 1996, we were about the 15th brewery. Now there are over 100 breweries in San Diego County.”
“But we’re not San Diego,” cautions Michael Byrne. “Richmond has 212,000 people with a metro population of around a million.” Byrne is director of operations at the Tobacco Company Restaurant in Richmond’s Shockoe Slip neighborhood. He also operated Richbrau, the city’s first brewpub, for 15 years before the recession of 2008 “put a damper” on business and forced its eventual closing.
“We’re paying the city 6 cents on the dollar for a meal tax,” complains Byrne, and the city, as he views it, is using that tax money to finance a competitor.
“Richmond is one of the highest per capita restaurant cities in the U.S. It’s on fire right now, and we all compete against each other, but in a healthy way. Stone got a deal that none of us could get.”
Responds Koch, “Richmond is not getting into the restaurant business. The city is the landlord; we’re paying rent.” Stone, he adds, will repay all of the incentive money except for state grant money earmarked for roads and other infrastructure.
Stone scoped out Norfolk and Columbus, Ohio, before settling on Richmond. Without the restaurant, there would have been no deal, stressed Koch.
(Green Flash, meanwhile, has avoided this sort of controversy by eschewing the restaurant business altogether, although it might operate a food truck to serve visitors, says Hinkley.)
Stone might not be the last West Coast brewery to set up shop in the Old Dominion. Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Ore., began selling beer in the Washington area last winter, premiering a spiced saison, Zarabanda, that was formulated with the help of celebrity chef Jose Andres. On June 27, Deschutes will bring its Street Pub to Arlington, Va.: a 185-foot outdoor bar with 40 taps.
But the brewer of Fresh Squeezed IPA and Black Butte Porter is seeking a more permanent presence. Twice, Deschutes has sent out teams to scout possible sites for an East Coast brewery in Virginia, Tennessee or the Carolinas. “We want to have purchased a second location by the end of 2015 and be up and running by spring 2019,” says brewery president and operating officer Michael LaLonde.
On March 12, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, a San Diego-based brewery/distillery, is considering Richmond for an East Coast base.
Interestingly, no East Coast breweries seem to be prowling for West Coast sites. Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, for example, ships to 30 states including California, Oregon and Washington. But “we made a decision to make all our beer in Delaware,” says President Sam Calagione. He explains that most of the fruit and vegetables we eat are grown west of here and transported east. The trucking companies, rather than send their fleets back empty, are willing to offer competitive rates for shipping from east to west.
“But if gas prices rise, who knows?”...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/3013900-8/more-west-coast-beermakers-to-fire-up-kettles
/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7963342@yakimaherald.comThu, 26 Mar 2015 17:42:40 GMTSlow cooker meals: Let dinner make itselfWed, 25 Mar 2015 09:02:00 GMTBy Alison Sherwood
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

You can cook just about anything in a slow cooker. That doesn’t mean you should.
But the slow cooker is kitchen appliance gold for those foods that are made better by a long, slow braise or just made more convenient to prepare with a hands-off technique.
These comfort foods all benefit from being made in a slow cooker. Keep in mind that “set it and forget it” goes only so far. Cooking time can vary widely depending on your cooker, so don’t forget it for too long.
Slow Cooker Pea Pot Pie
This recipe, adapted from Edible Indy, is a simple, vegetarian take on pot pie that is hearty without being too indulgent. Bake the biscuits to give them a golden brown crust, or drop the dough on top of the pot pie in the slow cooker for a softer texture. The biscuit recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 medium potato, diced (about 2 cups)
1 small sweet potato, diced (about 2 cups)
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
2 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cups dried white navy beans (not canned)
1 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter, sliced
2 cups frozen peas
Biscuits:
11/2 cups flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk, chilled
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Combine potato, sweet potato, onion, carrots, beans, tarragon, thyme and salt in a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Place flour in a bowl and slowly whisk in broth, stirring to prevent lumps. Pour over vegetable mix. Add butter, then cover slow cooker and cook on high. After about 3 to 4 hours, when beans are tender, stir in frozen peas.
Make biscuit dough: Whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Stir buttermilk and melted butter into flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Using a greased quarter-cup measure, scoop out and drop 8 mounds of dough into slow cooker on top of the bubbling potpie mixture. Continue to cook on high until biscuits are set, about 40 minutes. For a crisper biscuit crust, bake biscuits at 375 degrees on an ungreased baking sheet 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Pudding Cake
This recipe from melskitchencafe.com is a chocolate lover’s delight. Using a slow cooker makes it easy to serve at a potluck or dinner party without the gooey hot fudge base cooling down.
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (divided)
11/4 cups sugar (divided)
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
11/2 cups boiling water
Vanilla ice cream for serving
Coat a medium slow cooker with vegetable oil spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center, add the milk, oil and vanilla and stir in widening circles, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients, until smooth. Stir in peanut butter to form a thick batter. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter evenly in slow cooker.
In another medium bowl, combine remaining 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and 3/4 cup sugar. Pour in the boiling water and whisk until smooth. Gently pour over the batter in the slow cooker; do not stir. Cover and cook on high until puffed and the top layer is set, 2 to 4 hours.
Turn off the slow cooker and let it stand, covered, 30 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Legs
These chicken legs have the best of both worlds: tenderness and simplicity from the slow cooker and crispy skin from the oven. The recipe is from theslowroasteditalian.com.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 cup Buffalo sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced
6 tablespoons honey
4 pounds chicken legs or wings
To a 5-quart slow cooker, add Buffalo sauce, butter and honey. Stir to combine. Add chicken and stir to coat. Cook on low 3 to 4 hours or high 1 to 2 hours.
Remove chicken from slow cooker and place on a baking sheet lined with foil. Drizzle sauce from slow cooker over legs or wings.
Set oven to broil. Place baking sheet in oven and broil 2 to 3 minutes until sauce starts to caramelize.
For a thick sauce coating, transfer sauce to a saucepan and boil it until it cooks down, about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then brush or drizzle sauce over the meat.
Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas
While these fajitas lack grill marks, they’re simple as can be. Throw the ingredients together in the afternoon and have dinner waiting in a few hours.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
3 tablespoons butter, sliced and divided
2 green bell peppers, seeded and sliced
1 large yellow or white onion, sliced
2 to 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons (1 packet) chicken taco or fajita seasoning mix (see note for homemade recipe)
12 flour tortillas
Sour cream, salsa and lettuce, for serving
Place half of butter in bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Layer peppers, remaining butter, onion and chicken over it. Sprinkle taco or fajita seasoning mix over chicken, cover and cook on low 4 hours or until chicken is cooked through.
Shred chicken with a fork and stir with the peppers and onion. Serve in warmed tortillas with sour cream, salsa and lettuce.
Note: To make one serving of homemade seasoning mix, combine 1 tablespoon chili powder, 11/2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder and 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.
Slow Cooker Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
This recipe, adapted from dinnerwithjulie.com, takes the fuss out of homemade mac and cheese and leaves you with a bubbling bowl of cheesy comfort (plus some extra vegetables in the quiet form of cauliflower).
Makes 8 servings
1 pound elbow macaroni, uncooked
1 head cauliflower, trimmed and chopped into small pieces
11/2 pounds sharp cheddar cheese, grated
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into chunks
5 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high 4 to 6 hours, removing the lid to give it a stir about once an hour.
Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lasagna
The tough part about bringing pasta to a potluck is keeping it warm. This slow cooker lasagna recipe solves that problem. Just bring the entire slow cooker to the party and your lasagna is ready when you are.
Feel good about loading up on this lasagna filled with veggies and whole-grain noodles. The sauce provides plenty of liquid to cook the noodles in, so no need to buy no-boil lasagna noodles or precook them.
Makes 6 servings
1 can (28 ounces) petite diced tomatoes, drained
1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 large garlic cloves, minced or crushed in a garlic press
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium yellow squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ounces fresh spinach
3/4 of a 13.5-ounce package of whole-grain lasagna noodles
16 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, in slices
5 ounces shredded Asiago cheese
In a large bowl, combine ricotta, egg and garlic. Stir in zucchini, squash and spinach until combined. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and oregano.
Spread 2 cups of the sauce in bottom of a 5.5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Lay 4 to 5 lasagna noodles over the sauce, overlapping and breaking the noodles to cover as much area as possible. Layer half of the cheese and vegetable mixture over the noodles and press into place.
Spread 11/2 to 2 cups of sauce over the cheese and vegetable mixture, then arrange one-third of the fresh mozzarella cheese and sprinkle one-third of the Asiago cheese over it. Repeat the layers: another 4 to 5 noodles, the remaining cheese and vegetable mixture, 11/2 to 2 cups sauce, half the remaining mozzarella and Asiago cheese. Add a final layer of noodles, then spread the remaining sauce over it and top with the remaining mozzarella and Asiago.
Cover and cook on high 2 hours, or until noodles are cooked and cheese is melted....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2966041-8/slow-cooker-meals-let-dinner-make-itself
By Alison Sherwood/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7838309@yakimaherald.comWed, 25 Mar 2015 09:02:00 GMTYakima Valley’s Red Wine and Chocolate adds Secret Crush eventMon, 23 Mar 2015 20:22:34 GMTBy Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

In case the inherent romance of red wine paired with chocolate isn’t enough, industry group Wine Yakima Valley will open this weekend’s annual Red Wine and Chocolate event with a new Valentine’s Eve celebration featuring the very best wines the Valley has to offer.
Whereas the weekend as a whole is dedicated to the Valley wine industry’s breadth and variety — from budget wines all the way up to reserve bottlings — the Secret Crush event, from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the 4th Street Theatre, is a showcase of only the very best. We’re talking the good stuff here. Not everyday wines. Special occasion wines.
“We are always talking about being prideful of our community, and sometimes we don’t realize how good it is here,” said Barb Glover, executive director of Wine Yakima Valley. “We can stand up with the best.”
The wines selected for Secret Crush have all been rated 90 or higher by a wine journal or have won gold medals in competition — except for a handful that were produced in quantities too small to send out for review. Some are difficult to find. Others are commonly stocked in local stores. But they are all renowned bottlings.
Among the highlights are the 2011 Owen Roe Union Gap Vineyard blend, a limited production Bordeaux-style wine that retails for $85 a bottle; Two Mountains’s 2010 Reserve Brothers cabernet sauvignon, of which only 25 cases were produced; Côte Bonneville’s 2006 Carriage House, a red blend that scored 93 points in Wine Spectator; and Treveri Cellars nonvintage rosé sparkling wine, which has twice been served at official U.S. State Department functions.
Chef Roger Hazzard of Bon Vino’s Bistro and Bakery in Sunnyside will supply the food for the event, including several hors d’oeuvres paired to specific red wines available at the event. He was still determining which wine to pair with which food as of Monday afternoon. It’s a job he takes seriously.
“I want to take the best wines in the Valley and support them,” he said. “But I can’t overpower them. We want to feature that wine. We want to show all the hard work that goes into it.”
Even among the reds, there’s great variation. Some are very bold, others are elegant. Some are highly tannic, others are more subtle.
“With these wines, we really need to check the tannins,” Hazzard said. “If there are more tannins, we need to choose a food with more acidity that’s more fatty. With the lighter red wines, we don’t want as much acidity. We don’t want to overpower the wine.”
So the tweaking of recipes continues. But, while some small details may change — the acidity of a sauce, for instance — the menu is set. There will be antipasto skewers with arugula, sea scallops with a “twisted ceviche” blended into a sauce, seared tuna flown in fresh from Hawaii on Tuesday, panko-crusted lamb wrapped in havarti and drizzled with rosemary chutney, Greek olive tapenade with dill ricotta and roasted chipotle chicken on crostini, stuffed mushrooms with turkey bacon drizzled with a ragu, and a chocolate mousse with cherry sauce.
“One of the reasons we decided to work with Roger is that it’s a fresh perspective for Yakima,” Glover said.
Most of the 100 to 125 people expected at Secret Crush are locals, she said. That’s in contrast to the rest of Red Wine and Chocolate weekend, when the bulk of the estimated 2,500 to 3,000 tasters will arrive from Western Washington. Those numbers make the event the local industry’s second-biggest of the year, behind only Spring Barrel Tasting in April.
Dozens of wineries up and down the Valley will pair their reds with chocolates and chocolate-based foods, starting Saturday and continuing through Monday. Gilbert Cellars in downtown Yakima will offer treats from local patisserie Crème. Masset Winery in the Rattlesnake Hills near Wapato will pair handmade Belgian chocolate truffles with sangiovese and winter-harvest syrah. Côte Bonneville will celebrate its new tasting room in Sunnyside by offering Esther Price chocolates alongside its reds.
Those are just a few highlights of the weekend, which Glover said carries an extra measure of romance this year. The event is always on President’ Day weekend, so it’s always close to Valentine’s Day. But this year it actually includes Valentine’s Day.
“Red Wine and Chocolate is always a great event for couples — the romance, the time of year,” she said.
And the hope is the Secret Crush event will only enhance that, this year and for years to come, Glover said.
“We will keep that a smaller event,” she said. “And we will keep it a special event.”...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2902233-8/yakima-valleys-red-wine-and-chocolate-adds-secret
PMUIR/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7669534@yakimaherald.comMon, 23 Mar 2015 20:22:34 GMTOn the Bar: The Saint ValentineMon, 23 Mar 2015 20:20:16 GMTBy Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

Valentine’s Day is what you make it.
You want to embrace it, mawkish commercialism and all? I have no problem with that. Go buy one of those giant teddy bears holding a dozen roses or whatever. Rent “The Notebook.” That’s fine.
You want to ignore it entirely and make a statement against the commodification of love? Right on, brothers and sisters. Stick it to the man. Down with all conspicuous emotion. Or what have you.
I make no value judgments either way. But I have to believe most of us are somewhere in the middle. We resent the money-driven emphasis on ostentatious shows of affection, but we think the idea of a holiday set aside to celebrate love is actually quite nice.
So let me tell you how I’m going to celebrate this year: I’m taking my wife out for a nice dinner and I’m making us some special after-dinner cocktails. (I’ll probably also get some flowers and write her something baldly sentimental and heartfelt, because I am a sap and she knows and accepts this.)
All of which leads to the question of just what to drink on Valentine’s Day. Fine red wine works. Champagne is classic and inarguable. But if you’re looking for something a little different, allow me to recommend the Saint Valentine, a cocktail invented a few years back by pre-eminent contemporary cocktail writer David Wondrich.
A sharp rum-based cocktail, enriched by ruby port and enlivened by orange liqueur and lime juice, it’s light enough to be fun but complex enough to be serious — just like a good Valentine’s Day date....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2890464-8/on-the-bar-the-saint-valentine
PMUIR/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7639671@yakimaherald.comMon, 23 Mar 2015 20:20:16 GMTMaple: It’s so much more than just syrupMon, 23 Mar 2015 19:49:05 GMTBy Noelle Carter
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — In coffee, tea and barbecue sauce, with duck, turkey and salads, it’s become a go-to flavor.
Growing up, I associated maple flavor with the pancake syrup found at the breakfast table. It was sweet but mostly flavorless. As if its only purpose was to baptize food in a sticky coating of liquid sugar. I wasn’t the biggest fan.
Today it seems maple is everywhere. It flavors ice cream, candy, coffee, tea, barbecue sauce and more. Thirsty? Hydrate yourself with maple water, now hip enough to be touted as the next coconut water.
And maple isn’t just limited to retail products. Go out to eat and you’ll find it added to any number of restaurant dishes. It’s a chef’s Eliza Doolittle.
I now look for any excuse to add the real syrup to a dish, whether simple desserts, such as a salted maple stove-top pudding, or a brine for a basting glaze for slow-smoked turkey or duck. I’ll even sneak it into salads as the sweet component in a vinaigrette. And, yes, pancakes aren’t complete without it.
“Maple syrup is a great alternative sweetener. It’s natural,” says Jon Shook, co-owner with Vinny Dotolo of the restaurants Animal and Son of a Gun. Maple has found a way onto the menus of both places.
The smoked steelhead roe with maple cream and pumpernickel bread at Son of a Gun “has a bit of a cult following,” says Dotolo. Unusual sounding, perhaps, if you haven’t yet tried it. But, Dotolo adds, “It kind of reminds you of bagels and lox. The smokiness, saltiness and sweetness lends itself to a really nice contrast.”
Another cult favorite? The foie gras loco moco at Animal. Its take on the Hawaiian comfort food layers rice, a beef burger, Spam, foie gras and a quail egg bathed in a sweet-spicy sauce punctuated with notes of Sriracha and maple syrup.
“I have a kind of attachment to maple syrup,” says Susan Feniger of Border Grill and Mud Hen Tavern. She says she used to make maple syrup when she was in college in Vermont. Feniger describes collecting the sap and staying up all night, boiling the sap down to a syrup. “It was pretty incredible. I’ve always been a big fan.”
At Feniger’s Mud Hen Tavern, she’s used maple syrup quite a bit over the years. “Kind of from the Street days,” she says. (Feniger transformed Street, her earlier restaurant, into Mud Hen in 2013.) “You’ve got that Southeast Asian sweet-salty thing going on.” Maple infuses a number of dishes, including chicken and waffle croquettes served with a spicy maple sauce and smoked pork belly flavored with an espresso-maple brine.
The restaurant even features a cocktail called the Old Maple, which, though it doesn’t contain any actual maple, combines a mixture of rye whiskey, walnut bitters and agave. “It almost tastes like maple syrup,” Feniger says.
Maple syrup itself is going through a bit of a renaissance. “Maple syrup has such a distinct flavor,” says Shook. “The generation I grew up in, it was Aunt Jemima.”
Salted Maple Pudding
20 minutes, plus cooling time. Serves 4 to 6.
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3 cups whole milk
1 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (4-inch) vanilla bean, split
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1. Place the butter in a strainer set over a bowl. Place the bowl over a larger bowl of ice water to form an ice bath.
2. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the milk, maple syrup, salt and vanilla bean. Cook over medium-high heat, striring frequently, until the mixture comes to a boil, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and cornstarch.
4. Whisk one-half cup of the boiling half-and-half into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, then slowly stir the egg mixture into the hot liquid. Increase the heat to high and cook, whisking constantly (and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan), until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil.
5. Immediately remove the pan from heat and pour the mixture over the butter in the strainer. Strain the custard, then gently stir until the butter is completely incorporated. This makes about 3 cups custard.
6. Divide the custard between serving cups or ramekins. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the surface of each custard to prevent a skin from forming, and set aside until cooled.
Maple-Bourbon Smoked Duck
40 minutes, plus brining and smoking times. Serves 6 to 8.
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
1 quart apple cider
1 quart water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 cup maple syrup, divided
1/2 cup bourbon
3 (4-inch) rosemary sprigs, lightly crushed
2 (5- to 6-pound) ducks, thawed
Apple or hickory chips, soaked
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1. Toast the mustard seeds in a pot over medium-low heat just until they start to pop, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cider and water to the pot, and stir in the salt, one-half cup maple syrup and bourbon. Add the crushed rosemary sprigs and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside until the brine cools to room temperature.
2. Place the ducks in a large nonreactive bowl and pour over the brine. Place a plate over the ducks to weigh them down so they stay submerged in the brine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next morning, remove the ducks from the brine and dry them with paper towels. Place the ducks, uncovered, on a rack and refrigerate until about an hour before cooking.
4. About an hour before cooking, prepare the smoker or grill to cook over low, indirect heat: Set up a drip pan underneath where the ducks will smoke, and fill with water (or the liquid used to soak the wood chips). Shortly before cooking, adjust the heat as needed to maintain a temperature between 250 and 300 degrees and add the soaked chips to start smoking. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the remaining maple syrup; this will be used to baste the ducks as they cook.
5. Baste the ducks and place them (breast-side up) over the drip pan in the prepared smoker. Adjust the heat as needed (add several coals to either side of the grill as needed if using a kettle grill) to keep the smoker between 250 and 300 degrees; replenish the chips as needed to keep smoking for the first hour. Baste the ducks every 30 minutes or so to keep them moist.
6. Cook to an internal temperature of 135 degrees, 2 to 3 hours (timing will vary depending on the size of the ducks and heat of the smoker). To crisp the skin, open the vents of the grill or smoker to increase the heat, and continue to cook the ducks for 5 to 10 minutes more.
7. Remove and set aside 15 to 20 minutes to rest before carving.
Grilled Apple Salad with Blue Cheese and Maple Vinaigrette
40 minutes. Serves 4.
1/2 pound bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick strips
1 head radicchio
1 large head fennel
2 tart apples, such as McIntosh or Granny Smith
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme
1/4 teaspoon chopped rosemary
5 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces blue cheese, preferably Maytag
1. Cook the bacon strips over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the strips are crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon on paper towels, reserving 3 tablespoons bacon grease.
2. Remove any wilted outer leaves from the radicchio and slice it lengthwise into eight wedges. Trim the top off the fennel, halve it lengthwise, then slice it crosswise into half-inch strips, discarding the core. Core the apples and cut each into 8 wedges.
3. Whisk together the shallots, thyme, rosemary, maple syrup, vinegar, bacon grease and olive oil. Season with one-half teaspoon salt and a grind of black pepper, or to taste. This makes about 1 cup vinaigrette.
4. Brush the apple wedges with a little of the vinaigrette and place them on an oiled grill heated over medium-high heat. Grill the wedges for about 2 minutes on each side, until slightly softened with defined grill marks. Remove and reserve in a warm place. Do the same with the fennel and radicchio.
5. Divide the apple, fennel and radicchio among 4 plates. Crumble the blue cheese over the salads, and sprinkle over the bacon. Drizzle 1 to 2 teaspoons of the remaining vinaigrette over each salad. Serve immediately....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2923444-8/maple-its-so-much-more-than-just-syrup
By Noelle Carter/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7725950@yakimaherald.comMon, 23 Mar 2015 19:49:05 GMTOn the Bar: Team-color cocktailsThu, 19 Mar 2015 18:00:34 GMTBy Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

A Super Bowl featuring the home-state team is an event worthy of an exception, but as a rule I don’t drink a lot of blue or green cocktails.
The trouble with most brightly colored drinks is that they tend to be sugar bombs with names that end in “tini” — a suffix that really should only be preceded by “gin mar,” not “apple” or “choco” or “blueberry.” So where does that leave those of us who would like to rep the Seahawks with team-color cocktails at a party this Sunday?
Don’t sweat it. On the Bar has you covered. Just like Kam Chancellor will have Rob Gronkowski covered.
First, for your green, we’re going with Death in the Afternoon, an absinthe and champagne drink invented by Ernest Hemingway himself. It’s a gorgeous drink and as simple to make as pouring some absinthe in a glass and topping it with champagne. There’s magic that happens when absinthe is diluted; it gets cloudy and opaque and creates a great shade of green.
How much you enjoy drinking it will depend on your personal taste for absinthe. (Hemingway, though indisputably a man of taste and style, would drink just about anything.) Personally I like it, but Death in the Afternoon isn’t going to be for everyone.
Blue Margaritas, on the other hand, are about as accessible and crowd-pleasing as you can get. All you do is make a normal margarita with blue curacao instead of triple sec (or Cointreau or orange curacao or whatever other orange liqueur you’d normally use as the sweetener).
They taste pretty much the same as the regular version, but they look stunning — bluer than Gisele Bundchen’s eyes and uncluttered by the tears she’ll be crying when this game ends....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2864509-8/on-the-bar-team-color-cocktails
PMUIR/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7571466@yakimaherald.comThu, 19 Mar 2015 18:00:34 GMTOn the Menu: 10-4 Café in GrandviewThu, 19 Mar 2015 18:00:16 GMTBy Ross Courtney
Yakima Herald-Republic

ROSS COURTNEY/Yakima Herald-Republic
Steak and eggs may not be the fanciest breakfast, but the dish can be horrible if screwed up. The folks at the 10-4 Café in Grandview most definitely did not screw up mine. It was so delicious that I could not resist a bite before I snapped this picture.

Over the years, I have visited the 10-4 Café in Grandview only to grab a cup of coffee between stories or gather man-on-the-street interviews about political topics. Like many diners, the restaurant has a steady stable of coffee drinkers who enjoy conversation with their friends.
(I remember one old-timer who made fun of me for using the word “rhetoric” in a question. He was right. It’s a dumb word, probably one I used completely out of context just because I thought it made me sound smart.)
Anyway, I admit I’ve rarely — if ever — eaten any food at the 10-4 Café. A cryin’ shame. The meals are a lot like the chit-chat: hearty, tasty and certified B.S.-free. And they serve breakfast all hours.
So, one morning during a vacation I took my son, Chase, there for breakfast. I ordered the 6-ounce steak and eggs, while he had the biscuits and gravy, both dishes we don’t normally try.
Again, neither dish is fancy, but they both can stink if not cooked right. Ours were definitely cooked right, and they were served promptly and within budget. All the menu entreés — everything from burgers to chicken fried steak — cost under $15.
The place has a log-cabin look on the inside, with wood paneling, animal antlers and wise-crack signs about coffee drinking and the “complaint department.”
10-4 Café
Location: 703 E. Wine Country Road, Grandview
Phone: 509-882-3122
Hours: 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2850949-8/on-the-menu-10-4-café-in-grandview
RCOURTNEY/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7535741@yakimaherald.comThu, 19 Mar 2015 18:00:16 GMTSesame seeds are used everywhere, in everythingWed, 18 Mar 2015 18:15:19 GMTBy Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It was the Great Sesame Chicken Debacle of 1975.
I’m guessing on the 1975 part. It was certainly around then. 1975-ish.
At the time, my mother had decided, for reasons I never fully understood, to serve the same dish at every dinner party: sesame chicken. This wasn’t the sesame chicken, breaded and fried and coated in a gloppy sauce, served at some Chinese restaurants. This was whole pieces of chicken lacquered with a lightly sweet dark glaze and coated with sesame seeds. Every party my parents threw, out came the sesame chicken to “oohs” and “ahhs,” and the occasional, quiet “not again.”
Their guests knew what to expect. For anyone invited for the first time to one of the parties, my mother announced that she was serving her famous sesame chicken. Until that one time, in 1975, or thereabouts.
She brought out the chicken. There were the expected “oohs” and “ahhs.” And then one guest said, “If this is sesame chicken, where is the sesame?”
She had forgotten to put on the sesame. What she brought out to her guests was just ... chicken.
OK, it was funnier at the time than reading about it now. But that is what I think of almost every time I use sesame as a major component in a dish.
Sesame seeds have been a major part of the world’s cooking for a long time. A very long time. Archaeologists have found traces of sesame seeds dating back nearly 5,000 years. Ancient cultures began growing the plant specifically for the flavorful oil in its seeds more than 3,000 years ago. Though sesame seeds are primarily grown in Southeast Asia (Myanmar, India, China) and Africa, they are used practically everywhere throughout the world, from Sweden to Argentina.
A bagel isn’t a bagel without sesame seeds. Falafel needs tahini, which is made from ground sesame seeds. And even sesame chicken needs sesame seeds, although apparently not always.
For my culinary exploration of all things sesame, I decided to try a bit of everything from everywhere. A bread that is ubiquitous in Turkey. A chilled vegetable dish from China. A dessert from Africa. A crisp cookie from the Middle East. A sweet bread from a cookbook based on the movie “Casablanca.”
About that cookbook: Ordinarily, cookbooks that try to capitalize on a movie or television show are next to worthless; they are printed solely to make a quick buck off people who want anything that reminds them of their favorite movie. “Casablanca” happens to be my favorite movie, but my wife gave me “The Casablanca Cookbook” because the recipes in it actually looked intriguing.
Jan’s Sesame Bread looked especially intriguing (and you have to be a serious “Casablanca” nerd to know that Jan is the young man from Bulgaria who comes to Rick’s with his younger wife in the hopes of winning enough money at roulette to buy a ticket to America).
Three ingredients make the bread so tempting and unusual. One is prunes, the second is yogurt and the third is tea. The prunes are softened and cut into small pieces to be found like treasure throughout the loaves. The yogurt provides both flavor and a softer crumb. And the tea isn’t mixed into the bread at all; rather, it is used to soften and flavor the prunes, giving them a hint of tannin to cut their natural sweetness.
It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
The Turkish bread, simit, is so popular that bakeries make it twice a day, in the morning and the afternoon. It is sold from street-corner stalls, carts and even off the back of bicycles. The bread is circular and not too tall, and is covered in the sesame seeds that provide most of its signature flavor. The crust can be hard (apparently, in some parts of the country it is harder than others) but the inside is chewy. I have no proof of this whatsoever, but I’ve always thought that simit was a precursor to bagels.
Their appearance alone is irresistible, and their taste is great.
For a savory treat, I looked to China, the country that uses sesame the most — in both seed and oil form — in everyday meals. My interest was piqued by a vegetable dish called Cold Sesame Broccoli. It begins with broccoli that has been peeled (if you’ve never done it, it makes the broccoli exceptionally tender and flavorful) and blanched, and then mixed together with sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, peanut oil, garlic and green onions.
Served cold, it is the perfect mixture of Chinese flavors, but if you want to add a little ginger or pepper flakes to it, I, for one, would not object.
I next made a batch of Sesame-Honey Wafers, a heavenly concoction common throughout the Middle East. It takes the popular combination of sesame seeds and honey and turns it into a cookie instead of the more familiar candy that always gets stuck in your teeth. Naturally, a lot of butter is used, plus sugar and egg whites to keep them light. The ingredient that you wouldn’t think of, powdered ginger, does the job of keeping them from becoming cloyingly sweet.
If the truth absolutely has to be told, these cookies get a little stuck in your teeth, too. But they are so spectacularly delicious — with coffee, with ice cream or just by themselves — that this minor inconvenience is quickly forgotten.
Finally, I found edible inspiration in North Africa for a dessert called Tekoua, or at least I think I did. I have been unable to find any reference to Tekoua, by any variation of the name, other than the one recipe I saw in a single cookbook. But even if it does not exist, it should. Tekoua is a sesame-seed dessert at its most elemental. It only has two ingredients, sesame seeds and powdered sugar, plus a little water to make a glaze.
It would be hard to be any easier than this. You pound sesame seeds into a paste with a mortar and pestle (I used a spice grinder, which was much faster), and gradually add powdered sugar to it. Then you form this paste into little balls and dunk them in a simple glaze made from more powdered sugar and a bit of water.
It’s sheer sesame goodness.
Simit (Sesame Bread Rings)
Yield: 6
Adapted from “Classic Turkish Cooking” by Ghillie Basan and “Classical Turkish Cooking” by Ayla Algar
1 packet (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm water, 105 to 115 degrees
1 pound (33/4 cups) all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey or granulated sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter or sunflower oil
A few drops olive or sunflower oil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sesame seeds
1. Mix together the yeast and 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar in a little of the lukewarm water. Let stand 10 minutes until frothy.
2. Sift the flour with the salt into a bowl and stir in the honey or additional tablespoon of sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast, tablespoon of oil and the rest of the water. Use your hands to draw the flour in from the sides. Add more water if necessary, a tablespoon or two at a time; it may take an additional 1/2 cup or more. The dough will be very stiff. Knead well until the dough is very smooth, springy and elastic, about 15 minutes. Roll the ball of dough in a few drops of olive oil in a bowl and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it doubles in size, about 2 hours.
3. Punch down dough, knead a few times, and roll into a log. Divide the log into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a tight ball and let rest under a slightly damp towel for 30 minutes.
4. Roll each ball into a 14-inch long rope. Hold down one end of the rope with one hand while twisting it a few turns with the other. Then form this twisted rope into a ring, pressing and rolling the overlapping ends together on the work surface with one hand to seal. Place rings on 2 greased baking sheets, cover with a damp towel and let rest 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread sesame seeds on a plate. Brush each ring with the beaten egg and then dip into the sesame seeds, coating it heavily. Rotate each ring gently through your hands, enlarging it into a 7-inch circle. Place the rings back on the baking sheets and let rest 15 minutes or until well puffed. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Cold Sesame Broccoli
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Recipe from “Complete Chinese Cookbook” by Ken Hom
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
11/2 pounds (approximately) broccoli
1 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
11/2 tablespoons light soy sauce or regular soy sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
1. Place sesame seeds over medium heat in a small skillet. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until seeds become fragrant and turn a couple of shades darker, about 3 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. Set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Cut off the broccoli heads and break them into small florets. Use a vegetable peeler to peel broccoli stems and then cut them into bite-sized pieces. Cook all broccoli pieces in the boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes; then drain and dry them in a colander or salad spinner. Place in a clean bowl.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients, including the sesame seeds, in a small bowl. When well-mixed, pour over broccoli and toss. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. May be served the next day.
Jan’s Sesame Bread
Yield: 2 loaves, about 20 servings
Recipe from “The Casablanca Cookbook,” by Sarah Key, Jennifer Newman Brazil and Vicki Wells
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3 cups water
4 tea bags
1 pound (2 cups) pitted prunes
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
5 eggs
11/2 cups plain yogurt
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 medium loaf pans (5 cups or 1 1/4 liter capacity). Place sesame seeds over medium heat in a small skillet. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until seeds become fragrant and turn a couple of shades darker, about 3 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning.
2. Bring wat...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2966049-8/sesame-seeds-are-used-everywhere-in-everything
By Daniel Neman/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7838325@yakimaherald.comWed, 18 Mar 2015 18:15:19 GMTHow to add heat to your cooking with a variety of ingredientsWed, 11 Mar 2015 17:53:21 GMTBy Judy Hevrdejs
Chicago Tribune

Use this piri piri to season shellfish, fish and chicken.

Playing with fire in the kitchen is definitely dangerous. But it can also be delicious — if you learn to play with a few culinary heat makers.
It involves working with a variety of spicy, pungent or tart foods — from arugula and chilies to garlic, ginger, wasabi and Worcestershire sauce — that can spark a reaction in your mouth, throat and nose that may smolder, flame or tingle pleasantly.
Combining such foods in a dish and doing it well can be a challenge, though, for it goes beyond degrees Fahrenheit, Scoville scores and chest-thumping boasts.
“Here in America, we tend to want degrees of heat. It’s more of a macho I-can-eat-hotter-than-you, and it tends to overwhelm a lot of the other flavors in a dish,” says chef William Phillips at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. “You don’t want to dominate the main item with heat or spices. You want to be able to taste all of the ingredients.
“If you’re going to make a chili, you want to taste the meat, you want to taste the acid of the tomato, you want to taste a little bit of the spices, say, cumin and subtle heat.”
Chef and cookbook author Marcus Samuelsson might agree. “When people say they’re going to make spicy food, what they don’t understand is that it’s a song and dance,” he says. “It’s a balance.”
Phillips calls it “the rhythm of flavor.” And both chefs say it involves knowing how piquant foods affect your senses, complement other ingredients and can be layered to let all the elements shine.
Paul Wise knows exactly what those tart, spicy and pungent foods will do when you sniff them or they land in your mouth. Wise, an associate member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, says compounds in them will stimulate the nerve endings (receptors) in your mouth and throat, on your tongue and in your nose. Scientists call this sensation chemethesis. We like his term: “an electric prickle.”
Three of the most common players in food and beverages are: a cool receptor (think mint), a hot chili receptor, and “a kind of general irritant receptor” that can be sensitive to hot mustard, wasabi, horseradish and cinnamon, usually depending on the concentration.
“They’re some of the same nerve endings that give us sensitivity to heat and cold and pain,” says Wise. “And there are some overlapping sets of nerves that are involved.”
Even in the nose?
“The nose tends to be pretty sensitive,” says Wise.
Phillips agrees: “Things like horseradish and wasabi are a very quick thrill as opposed to long misery.”
So how do you build a well-balanced fire?
Consider all elements in a dish. Chili pepper’s capsaicin and fresh ginger’s gingerol will both amp up the pungent power of a dish. Growing regions and seasons can produce variations in pungency. And don’t ignore ingredients in condiments; Sriracha’s sugar and garlic, for example, and the vinegar in many hot pepper sauces.
“People tend to throw all the Tabasco in at the end,” says Phillips, a CIA associate professor of culinary arts and unofficial chili pepper coach. “It’s incredibly acidic, so it can be used as a tool in getting the layers of flavor.”
But give it time with other ingredients in the cooking pot.
“Vinegar and lime will always help if a dish is muddy,” says Samuelsson. “If you want it to go from muddy to bright, vinegar will cut through that. Lime juice will do that, too.”
Cooking can also tame some fire.
“Chilies will go from sharp to nutty to buttery,” says Samuelsson, who has restaurants across the U.S. and in Sweden. “That doesn’t happen when you just use it straight. That’s why I rarely use raw garlic or raw chili. That’s why you transform them.”
“Salt is incredible for increasing chilies’ heat and white and black pepper,” says Phillips.
“Fat can generally coat things and smooth things out when it comes to that heat,” says Phillips, from dairy (such as yogurt or butter) to oil.
Toasting spices or sauteing ginger, garlic or onions in oil is “absolutely going to knock down the pungency,” he adds, noting that you can also diminish the heat of a chili pepper by removing its ribs and seeds.
“When you create a spicy food, you also have to have an offsetter, and that could be rice, it could be cucumber,” says Samuelsson.
Or simply serve fiery elements — sauces, chopped fresh chilies, pickled ginger — alongside dishes to let folks fire up their own servings.
Should fire erupt in your mouth, Wise advises: “Pop an ice cube in there. It will really tamp it down fast.”
Piri Piri
Prep: 10 minutes
Makes: 1 cup
Adapted from chef Marcus Samuelsson’s “The Soul of a New Cuisine” (Wiley, $40) this sauce is used at the table to season shellfish, fish and chicken. Piri piri is the Swahili term for the hot chili and the national dish of Mozambique. Let mixture mellow slightly before tasting; the flavors will meld.
8 red bird’s-eye chilies (aka Thai chilies), seeds and ribs removed, chopped
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon each: chopped cilantro, chopped parsley
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
Combine chilies, lemon juice, cilantro, parsley and garlic in a blender; puree until smooth. With the blender running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream. Blend until well combined. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Shrimp Piri Piri
Prep: 15 minutes
Chill: 20 minutes
Cook: 4 minutes
Makes: 4 appetizer servings
Adapted from “The Soul of a New Cuisine.” The dish typically would be served with rice, but in this recipe each shrimp is wrapped in a lettuce leaf and served as an appetizer.
12 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons piri piri, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lime, quartered
12 Bibb lettuce leaves
Toss shrimp with 1/2 cup piri piri in a large bowl. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp; cook, turning once, until opaque throughout, 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate; sprinkle with salt. Squeeze lime quarters over shrimp. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of remaining piri piri on each lettuce leaf. Place a shrimp on each leaf; fold over bottom and sides to form a wrap. Serve immediately.
Juldi Juldi Everyday Veggies
Prep: 10 minutes.
Cook: 12 minutes
Makes: 3 to 4 servings
This recipe for quick Indian-style vegetables is adapted from Aarti Sequeira’s “Aarti Paarti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul,” (Grand Central Publishing, $28). Juldi means quickly. You can adjust the firepower by upping your favorite pungent items such as ginger or serrano chili.
2 cups vegetables, such as butternut squash, broccoli, fresh peas, beets, peeled if necessary, cut into bite-size pieces
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons sunflower oil
1/4 teaspoon each: cumin seeds, black or brown mustard seeds
2 teaspoons finely chopped, fresh ginger
1/4 to 1/2 medium serrano chili, seeded, sliced into thin half moons
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of sugar
Half a lime
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves and stems
Fill a large wok or skillet with 2 inches of water. Place a steamer basket inside; cover and heat to a boil. Put vegetables in the basket; sprinkle with a little salt. Cover; steam until vegetables are tender, 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the vegetable. Remove veggies from steamer basket; set on a plate to drain. Drain and wipe out wok.
Add oil to wok; heat over medium-high until it shimmers. Test heat’s readiness by dropping a couple of mustard seeds into the oil. If they sizzle immediately, oil is ready. Add mustard seeds; cover wok immediately as the seeds will begin to pop. When popping subsides and seeds turn gray, add cumin seeds. Stir a few seconds until you can smell them. Add ginger and chili, cooking until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
Add steamed vegetables, another pinch of salt, some black pepper and sugar. Cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to pick up a little color. Finish with a squeeze of lime and the cilantro....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2963275-8/how-to-add-heat-to-your-cooking-with
By Judy Hevrdejs/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7830676@yakimaherald.comWed, 11 Mar 2015 17:53:21 GMTHarness the crowd-pleasing power of NutellaWed, 04 Mar 2015 16:34:59 GMTBy Andrea Weigl
The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer

If there is any person in the United States who understands how much Americans — or really, people all over the world — love Nutella, it is Allison Robicelli, who along with her husband, Matt, owns the New York bakery Robicelli’s.
Allison Robicelli created Nutelasagna, the Nutella dessert heard round the world. It was a dish they made as a joke last summer and brought back for the holidays, when the craziness ensued. Lines formed at 8 a.m. Pans and slices sold out quickly. Stories appeared in New York, Great Britain, the Balkans, even Italy — the home of the company that makes the beloved chocolate hazelnut spread. Last month, the Ferrero company president traveled to Brooklyn to meet the Robicellis.
“The president says it became a media phenomenon,” Allison Robicelli said during a phone interview. She added: “I’m a god in Italy.”
The chocolate-hazelnut spread was a popular snack food in Europe and elsewhere before being exported to the United States 25 years ago. Our love affair with this sweet treat has only grown. Case in point: Jif introduced its own version three years ago.
Pastry chef Jossie Perlmutter, at Charlotte, N.C.’s fine dining restaurant The Asbury, realized the power of Nutella several years ago when she added a Nutella cupcake to a restaurant menu.
“Anytime I combine chocolate and hazelnuts, people just went nuts,” Perlmutter said. “Those were the highest-selling desserts.”
The inspiration for Nutelasagna was Allison Robicelli’s frustration with the media declaring every dessert “the new cupcake.” So she and her staff decided to hold an eight-week “Jump the Shark” summer when they would promote other desserts as the “new cupcake,” like green Jell-O, Norwegian waffles and noodle kugel. The last one inspired Nutelasagna. Her version combines layers of fresh lasagna noodles, cannoli cream, toasted hazelnuts, Nutella ganache and homemade marshmallows.
The best thing about making Nutelasagna is you can make it your own. Like the savory version, Robicelli says, “There’s not many hard rules with lasagna.”
So why does Robicelli think we are so fascinated by this chocolate-hazelnut treat? She says: “It’s peanut butter for grown-ups.”
Homemade Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread
Cookbook author Alice Medrich has a great tip for removing hazelnut skins. Bring a pot full of water to a boil, add 3 tablespoons baking soda and then 1 cup hazelnuts. Let simmer for 3 minutes. Drain water. Place hazelnuts in an ice bath. Rub nuts together to remove skins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven and cook for 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time. Remove from oven and let cool. Adapted from Leite’s Culinaria.
12 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup peeled, toasted hazelnuts
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil, such as canola
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
Place chocolate in a small glass or metal bowl. Set bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water to melt, or melt in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Let cool completely.
Grind hazelnuts in a food processor until they form a paste. Add oil, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt. Continue processing until the mixture is as smooth as possible or as smooth as you like. Add melted chocolate, blend well. If you like a smoother spread, strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer or sieve to remove any chucks of hazelnuts that remain.
Scrape spread into a jar or other resealable container and let it cool to room temperature. The spread will keep for up to 2 weeks.
Yield: 2 cups.
Nutella Scones
From “Baked Explorations,” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup (2.25-ounce) toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Nutella, divided
Preheat oven to 375 and place the rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, until combined.
Add butter. Use fingertips or a biscuit cutter to rub it into the flour until the butter is pea size and mixture is coarse.
Whisk together egg and cream in a separate bowl. Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until the dough just comes together. Gently and briefly knead dough with your hands. Add toasted hazelnuts and knead gently to incorporate. Flatten the dough into a rectangle approximately 6 by 12 inches (it does not need to be precise) and spread 1/4 cup Nutella on top in a crisscross pattern. Roll the dough up to make a cylinder about 6 inches long, turn it on its end, and gently flatten it into a disk about 1 3/4 inches high. Do not overwork the dough.
Cut dough into 6 or 8 wedges and place them on a prepared baking sheet. Bake scones for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Do not overbake.
Transfer scones to a wire rack to cool completely. Place the baking sheet with parchment still on it underneath the rack.
Heat 1/4 cup Nutella in a microwave until pourable, about 10 seconds on high. Pierce the tops of the scones a few times with a fork. Use a spoon to drip the warm Nutella in a zigzag pattern over the tops of the hot scones. Transfer them to a refrigerator to set for 5 minutes, then serve immediately.
Yield: 6 to 8 scones.
Nutelasagna
This version is adapted from Alison Robicelli of Robicelli’s bakery in Brooklyn, N.Y. If you have the time and feel inspired to make a more authentic version of Robicelli’s, use homemade lasagna noodles and marshmallows. To see a video on how to make marshmallows, go to therecipe.nandoweb.net/how-to-cook.
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, divided
1 box lasagna noodles
2 cups toasted hazelnuts
Sea salt
2 16-ounce containers ricotta cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
1 cup Nutella
1 (10-ounce) bag of marshmallows
Melt 1 1/2 sticks butter in a small skillet over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until the fat solids turn brown and the butter smells nutty. Watch carefully so it does not burn. Set aside.
Cook pasta, per package directions. Once cooked and drained, return to pot and toss with browned butter.
Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a small skillet over medium heat and then add hazelnuts. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with sea salt. Place in bowl. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine ricotta cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Whip 3/4 cup heavy cream until fairly stiff in a bowl with handheld mixers or in the bowl of a standing mixer. Fold whipped cream into ricotta. Set aside.
Make Nutella ganache: Bring 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pot to a simmer over medium heat. Pour over Nutella in a small bowl and stir to fully incorporate. Set aside.
Assemble lasagna in a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish. Start with a bottom layer of noodles, spread thin layer of ricotta, sprinkle with hazelnuts and drizzle with Nutella ganache. Repeat until down to last three noodles. Top with a layer of noodles. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and let bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove lasagna from oven. Top with marshmallows evenly across the lasagna. Either use a creme brulee kitchen torch to brown the marshmallows or broil in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes. Either way, watch carefully so the marshmallows do not burn. Sprinkle with remaining hazelnuts and drizzle with ganache. Serve warm or cold.
Yield: 12-15 servings....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2926577-8/harness-the-crowd-pleasing-power-of-nutella
By Andrea Weigl/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7734781@yakimaherald.comWed, 04 Mar 2015 16:34:59 GMTUp your Super Bowl drink game with HawktailsTue, 24 Feb 2015 16:22:48 GMTThe Seattle Times

The Super Bowl is only days away. If social media and bar menus are to be believed, our bashes will include lots of Jell-O and Skittles-infused shots. Lime gelatin-packets are flying off the shelves.
Don’t panic. We’ve got you covered. We’re about to up your drink game tenfold. We challenged four budding bartenders to improve on those Seahawks standbys or come up with new drinks. (Their recipes are below.)
Some were molecular-mixology inspired. Don’t be intimidated by that term. The recipes aren’t nearly as convoluted as the Patriots’ mass-substitution-four-lineman-formation. All are easy to execute at home.
The 12th Man-cino
Bartender Jana Howard of Vito’s on First Hill wins the prize for making the most original Seahawks drink behind the bar. In honor of Russell’s Wilson emotional reaction after the historic comeback against the Packers, Howard added saline to a tequila drink in homage to his “tears of joy.” That salty solution also serves another purpose — balancing the chocolate liqueur to create a savory, earthy craft cocktail. You can make a pitcher and chill it until you’re ready to serve. You can also get this drink at Vito’s on game day for $6.
2 ounces reposado tequila
¾ ounce Mancino Bianco vermouth (can use a dry or another bianco vermouth, but the savory element of Mancino helps balance the sweetness. )
¼ ounce Crème de Cacao
1 teaspoon of saline solution or saltwater (ratio is 1 to 4 kosher salt to water).
Stir ingredients with ice, then strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel.
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Improved Jell-O shots
Because it has become the traditional way to celebrate after every Seahawks score, we enlisted bartender Chris Faber of Lot No. 3 in Bellevue to make a better Jell-O shot.
His is a tropical take, with the coconut milk providing a dense, panna-cotta-like concoction. The rum is a nice Tiki touch. The shot is fun and brilliant. You’ll want to make a couple batches because your guests will hoist a few even if the home team isn’t scoring.
Improved Jell-O shots
12 ounces white rum
20 ounces ginger beer
6 ounces blue Jell-O
6 ounces lime Jell-O
14 ounce can of coconut milk
½ cup sugar
2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin (usually located next to Jell-O)
Combine 1 cup boiling water with the 6 ounces of blue Jell-O in a shallow pan (sprayed with Pam or other cooking spray). Stir until devolved. Add 6 ounces of rum and 10 ounces of ginger beer. Stir gently. Place mixture in the fridge to solidify. (At least four hours until the Jell-O has set. Overnight is ideal.)
Repeat this process with the green Jell-O.
Once the Jell-O set, remove it from the pan and cut into small cubes. Carefully mix these cubes together in a new pan.
Combine ½ cup cold water, ½ cup sugar, coconut milk and gelatin in a bowl and stir until ingredients are dissolved. Add 1 ½ cups boiling water, stir again and allow to cool. Then slowly pour this coconut mixture over the Jell-O cubes. Chill it overnight to set.
Cut them out of the pan on game day.
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Skittles Shrub
To improve on that other monstrosity, the Skittles-infused booze shot, we challenged bartender Elmer Dulla of Bar Sajor to create a more nuanced take.
Instead of extracting natural sugar from fruit or vegetable as he would for one of Bar Sajor’s signature shrubs, Dulla subbed in green and blue Skittles. He soaked Skittles in Champagne vinegar.
The result is a play on an Italian soda, a green-carbonated drink topped with a blue Skittles-foam. That foam is as addicting as cookie dough; you’re going to nibble at it before it ever makes it onto the drink.
Skittles Shrub
1 ½ ounces tequila
1 ounce green-skittles shrub *
¼ ounce lime juice
Soda water
Shake ingredients with ice then top with soda water. Top with blue skittles-infused whipped cream. **
To pre-batch, make a pitcher with the first three ingredients. When ready to serve, pour into 10 ounce glass, top with about 2 ounces of soda water and spoon in blue foam.
How to make shrub
100 grams of green Skittles
6 ounces simple syrup
12 ounces water
4 ounces Champagne vinegar (can also use apple cider vinegar)
Mix in a bowl until Skittles dissolve and then strain into container.
How to make the Skittles whip cream
100 grams of blue Skittles
12 ounces of heavy whipping cream
Combine Skittles and whipping cream in container and let sit for four hours. Mix and strain. Then whip the cream.
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The Old Chomper
Maybe those drinks are too highfalutin for your taste? We challenged bartender Andrew Dalan of Liberty on Capitol Hill to do a bubble-gum drink in honor of Coach Pete Carroll, who is constantly chomping while pacing the sidelines.
This drink combines fruit and liqueurs to mimic bubble gum flavors — strawberries, banana and spearmint — and is topped with bubbles. (Get it?)
Boozy punning aside, the grape notes of the sparkling wine round out the ingredients nicely to make this drink taste like liquid Bubble Yum.
The drink has eight ingredients, though if you throw a Super Bowl bash, chances are good you’ve thrown parties before and already have two of the ingredients — gin and bourbon — or have guests who stock them. In a pinch, you can sub the crème de menthe with 10 mint leaves. Just muddle the leaves.
If you want the drink in Seahawks color, drop a bit of Blue Curacao to finish. The drink tastes even better with two dashes of Angostura bitters. Can be served as a cocktail or shot. You can also order this drink at Liberty.
The Old Chomper
1 ounce gin
1 ounce bourbon
2 strawberries (muddled)
½ ounce pineapple juice
¼ ounce banana liqueur
¼ ounce crème de menthe
¼ ounce Orgeat
½ ounce sparkling wine
Shake with ice and strain. Top with sparkling wine....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2874336-8/up-your-super-bowl-drink-game-with-hawktails
Mark Morey/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7598007@yakimaherald.comTue, 24 Feb 2015 16:22:48 GMTThe secret behind a 200-year-old luxury sweet, MarzipanFri, 20 Feb 2015 21:01:59 GMTBy Stefan Nicola
Bloomberg News

Photos by Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg News
“It’s like a family here,” says one employee who hand-paints eyes onto pink marzipan piglets at the JG Niederegger plant in Luebeck, Germany. “Of course, the family has become much bigger and things have changed, but the marzipan still tastes the same,” the employee said.

LUEBECK, Germany — JG Niederegger owner Holger Strait has a 200-year-old secret, and he’s not sharing.
He’s one of only five people who know the recipe for the marzipan that shoppers buy in high-end stores around the world. While Niederegger prides itself on using more almonds and less sugar than competitors, the exact roasting method and the composition of the third ingredient, which resembles rose water, is locked in a safe.
Focusing on producing top-quality marzipan has helped the family-owned company in the northern German town of Luebeck to find a niche in the market and post a profit every year for the last three decades. Niederegger’s focus on one specific segment is a prime example of why Germany’s Mittelstand — the about 3 million small- and medium-sized companies that account for more than half the country’s economic output — has continued to thrive in a globally competitive environment.
“As a family business, we have the great advantage that we have acted in a sustainable way for the past 200 years,” Strait, dressed in a smart navy-blue suit, said in an interview. “We didn’t chase short-term success, but did things that are good for the brand and the company in the long term. We don’t get nervous when we have two average years.”
The Christmas season is busiest time of year for Niederegger, founded by Strait’s ancestor, Johann Niederegger, in 1806. One morning in December, half a dozen men in white T-shirts and blue jeans paced to and fro between pots that roasted marzipan over an open gas flame. In another room, the paste was pressed into heart shapes, injected with champagne filling and covered with chocolate.
At the end of the line, women wearing white robes and caps put 10 hearts each in a golden packaging tray. They’re part of the permanent staff of 500 and about 250 seasonal workers needed to meet demand during the pre-Christmas rush. Karin Ventur, a Luebeck native, joined the company 30 years ago for what she thought was one season to earn extra cash. She’s been with Niederegger ever since.
“It’s like a family here,” she said as she hand-painted black eyes onto pink marzipan piglets. “Of course, the family has become much bigger and things have changed, but the marzipan still tastes the same.”
Strait and his wife, Angelika, bought into the company in 1986 after his uncle emigrated to Canada. They invested in new machines, increased the product line to about 350 items and expanded into new markets such as eastern Europe.
Niederegger, which can produce as much as 30 tons of marzipan a day, expected to lift revenue 3 percent last year on rising exports to about 40 countries, with demand in the four months leading up to Christmas generating 60 percent of sales, Strait said. The company doesn’t sell in discounters such as Aldi to keep prices stable, Strait said.
German newspapers estimate the company’s annual sales at more than $123 million. The owner himself is mum on the company’s results.
“Family businesses are of key importance to Germany’s economy and society,” said Peter Bartels, who heads the family business and Mittelstand unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Germany. “They’re on a growth course despite the difficult economic situation of the past years — in Germany as well as in international markets.”
Marzipan probably originated in ancient Persia, and it’s believed to have made its way to Europe in the backpacks of crusaders and via land and sea trade. Until the 19th century, it was a luxury product bought mainly by the rich and royals, including French King Louis XIV. Luebeck became a marzipan hot spot when sugar could be extracted from sugar beet, lowering the price of the product and drawing confectioners to the city, including Johann Niederegger.
Strait has been involved in the family business since birth — literally.
“Marzipan and Christmas — they just belong together,” said Strait, who was born in 1949 in the factory he would later own — next to the roasting pots. “The workers were singing Christmas carols when suddenly, the head of production said: ‘Be quiet, a baby’s being born.’”
Today, the company faces challenges including competition from food giants including Ferrero and Mondelez International that don’t specialize in marzipan but sell products containing it, said Julia Buech, a food and drink analyst at research firm Mintel Group.
“One of Niederegger’s main advantages is the universally accepted very high quality of its marzipan,” Buech said. The company’s targeted growth of 3 percent is “a very good number,” given that the German chocolate market is expected to decline in the next five years, she said.
Niederegger’s success has benefited Luebeck. The town’s marzipan, like lebkuchen gingerbread from Nuremberg and Italian ham from Parma, is protected by the European Union. The city, which in medieval times headed the Hanseatic League that dominated trade across the Baltic, markets itself as a Christmas destination with an old town that dates to the 12th century and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
“If you think of Luebeck, you also think of marzipan,” Mayor Bernd Saxe said in an email. “Niederegger’s sweet treats are an excellent ambassador.”
Strait, 65, says he’ll eventually hand over the company to his two daughters, who will be the family’s eighth generation to run Niederegger.
“I’ll be at the company’s disposal until I’m 67,” he said, then added with a smile, “If Picasso dropped his brush at 65, it would have been too bad for all the nice pictures.”...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2761792-8/the-secret-behind-a-200-year-old-luxury-sweet-marzipan
Bloomberg News./ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7301324@yakimaherald.comFri, 20 Feb 2015 21:01:59 GMTIt’s official: The avocado is America’s new favorite fruitThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:21:42 GMTBy Roberto A. Ferdman
The Washington Post

MARK GAIL/Washington Post
Once a rare regional treat, avocados are now available throughout the year and from coast to coast.

America is in love with avocados.
The country’s appetite for the creamy, versatile fruit (yes, avocados are fruit) has grown just about every year for the past 15 years, according to data from the Hass Avocado Board, invading kitchens and menus across the country. The rise is such that sales of Hass avocados, which make up more than 95 percent of all avocados consumed in the United States, soared to a record of nearly 1.9 billion pounds (about 4.25 billion avocados) last year, more than double the amount consumed in 2005, and nearly four times as many sold in 2000.
Once a rare treat, enjoyed only by cities on the West Coast fortunate enough to sell fresh fruit when they were in season, avocados can now be found year round piled high at supermarkets nationwide, on restaurant menus in even the most remote towns, and in Subway sandwiches across the country.
“The demand has just been incredible,” said Emiliano Escobedo, director of the Hass Avocado Board. “I think avocados are pretty much mainstream at this point.”
Fast food chains, including Burger King, Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread and others, use the beloved ingredient as a sales pitch in product launches and ad campaigns. And it works — after Subway announced it was allowing customers to “add avocado” to sandwiches in some 25,000 outlets around the country, traffic increased.
What’s more, people have come to expect it as a given: Many were less than enthused when a blog, meaning well but misunderstanding the purpose of a financial statement, mistakenly reported that Chipotle was running out of guacamole.
“It’s up to us, America. We need to save the guacamole chipotle. #fixtheclimate #savetheguac,” wrote one Twitter user.
Recipe sites are flooded with options for those who arrive with one green buttery ingredient in hand. A search query for recipes with avocados on FoodNetwork.com returns almost 2,000 results. On Food.com, the same query produces more than 2,500. Recipe site after recipe site returns hundreds if not thousands of options that include salads, tacos, soups, appetizers and sandwiches.
Even Men’s Fitness took the time to publish five chiseled paragraphs about the “simple combo of smashed avocado and whole-grain bread.”
Los Angeles still consumes the most avocados — nearly 300 million annually, according to the Hass Avocado Board. But other cities, like New York, Dallas, Phoenix and Houston (all exceeding 100 million), are catching up. And many others, including Roanoke, Va. (13.3 million), Raleigh, N.C. (23.17 million), and Columbus, Ohio (12.7 million), can now eat them by the truckload.
Why the sudden outpouring of love for avocados? A few reasons stand out.
The most tangible explanation is that the rise of avocados in the United States comes on the heels of loosened import restrictions, which used to ban shipments of the fruit from Mexico. The restrictions were problematic, because Mexico was (and still is) the world’s largest producer. Without the supply, all avocados the United States consumed instead came from California, which couldn’t grow them year round or consistently put fresh ones on supermarket shelves outside of the West Coast.
In the late 1990s, those restrictions were lifted, albeit slowly, allowing incremental increases in the amount of avocados imported from abroad. By 2000, 40 percent of all avocados sold in the United States were already grown outside of the country, according to the Hass Avocado Board. By 2005, the percentage has risen to 67 percent. Last year, it was 85 percent.
“It wasn’t until 2007 that Mexico had full access to the United States market,” said Escobedo.
All that extra supply, however, would have gone wasted if it weren’t for improved production methods. Most avocado varieties can be exceedingly fickle, ripening too quickly to be shipped and sporting skin too thin to sit on supermarket shelves without bruising.
On the other hand, the Hass avocado, which has been adopted as the mainstream variety produced and distributed around the country, ripens slowly, changes color when ripe, keeps for long and has a thick skin.
“They’re just more viable as a mass produced fruit,” said Escobedo. “They have a longer shelf life.”
Beyond the benefits of the Hass variety and influx of foreign fruit, the country’s growing Hispanic population has helped, too. Mexican cuisine, which regularly features avocados — often in the form of a lime-kissed dip — has itself gone mainstream, riding the coattails of the nearly 40 million Hispanics of Mexican origin who now live in the United States.
Escobedo attributes much of the avocado’s rise to the popularity of guacamole. Look no further than the success of fast causal Mexican chain Chipotle for evidence that this country will take just about as much it can get. A similar trend can be seen in the demand for tortillas, which has grown considerably over the past decade.
Avocados have also benefited from an association with healthfulness. Numerous studies have linked consumption of the fruit to healthier overall diets, including one published in January and another in early 2013. A recent revelation that not all fats are evil has painted avocados in a much more becoming light.
“Avocados do contain fat, but it is mostly the monounsaturated kind (the good kind),” New York University’s Langone Medical Center says on its website. “No matter how you slice it, the avocado has plenty of health benefits.”
And avocados are coveted. Despite prices that average more than $1 per fruit at wholesale and several times more at many restaurants, Americans continue to buy more bags at the grocery store and add-ons for sandwiches at eateries each year. Chefs praise them for their taste, which is creamy enough to balance out acidity or spiciness but mild enough not to overpower other ingredients. They also celebrate them as a luxury of sorts — not quite as coveted as caviar, but hardly as basic as a slice of green pepper or coil of onion.
“It’s like a beautiful sandwich with a Tiffany box,” Stefano Cordova, senior vice president of food and beverage innovation at Au Bon Pain, told the Wall Street Journal in 2012.
The whirlwind success of the avocado is in many ways a testament to so many trends at the heart of modern-day America. And no one has benefited more than avocado growers, who have faced record demand seemingly every year. The growth has become something of a self-perpetuating process, largely because the industry’s marketing budget is directly linked to its sales.
“As volume increases, the Hass Avocado Board collects more revenue,” Escobedo said. “But we have to use it all to market the product, because we’re a nonprofit.”
The industry’s budget is approaching $50 million annually. And it isn’t going to waste. On Feb. 1, Avocados from Mexico, one of the industry member organizations, ran its priciest advertisement ever, a well-received avocado spot during the Super Bowl. (Check it out on YouTube.)
“It’s the first time we’ve ever had an ad during the Super Bowl,” Escobedo said. “In fact, I think it’s the first time any produce at all has ever been advertised during the game.”...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2853061-8/its-official-the-avocado-is-americas-new-favorite
/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7541715@yakimaherald.comThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:21:42 GMTKitchen fires can pose a serious risk; cook smarterThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:21:29 GMTBy Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It could happen to anyone. It could happen to you.
Kitchen fires can be frightening. They can be costly. And they can be deadly. And they happen all the time.
How often? Fires that begin in the kitchen far outnumber all other kinds of house fires — combined. An average of 429 cooking-related fires are reported every day in this country, according to a comprehensive study by the National Fire Protection Association. That’s more than 150,000 residential fires per year just from cooking. Four hundred people die, and more than 5,000 are injured.
Plus, the financial toll is heavy, to the tune of $835 million in structural damages each year.
All of this damage, destruction and heartbreak comes about because someone spilled grease on the stove and neglected to clean it up. Or placed a potholder too close to a stove flame or heating element. Or put a roast in the oven and then took a nap.
Capt. Garon Mosby, public information officer for the St. Louis Fire Department, said the majority of these fires can be avoided by simply taking care in the kitchen.
“Cook neat. Neat and clean,” he said. If something spills or boils over on the stove, clean it up as soon as you can — and that goes for food inside the oven, too. It doesn’t have to be grease or anything you ordinarily think of as inflammable.
“Everything has an ignition point. Everything, at a certain temperature, will ignite,” Mosby said. Many people believe an object has to touch a flame for it to catch fire, but that is not the case.
“Once the temperature builds, maybe it’s not just what is on your stove (that can catch fire), maybe it’s the plastic on your microwave, maybe it is your cabinetry. It’s not just what is on your stove, a lot of the time it is what is near your stove.”
Another main cause of kitchen fires is unattended cooking. According to Mosby, that is when people “get distracted, leave the home, forget that they are cooking.”
If no one is watching a pot, the liquid in it can cook off and evaporate. What is left behind can catch fire. “And a lot of the time, people think they can get to the store and back in time.”
They can’t.
Whenever you are frying, grilling or broiling food, “stay in the kitchen to attend to it,” Mosby said. And if you are using other methods to cook, be sure to stay at home and check on it regularly. If you are forgetful, set an audible timer to remind yourself to look in on it.
If you do have a minor flare-up in your kitchen, remember that fire needs oxygen to survive, he said. If a fire breaks out in a pan, cover it with a lid to cut off the oxygen, and don’t open it up again until you are certain the flames are out. Turn off the heat under the pan, too, and move the pan off the heating element if you can do so safely.
If the fire is in your oven, do not open the door, Mosby said. That will just let oxygen in and encourage it to grow. Often, simply keeping the oven door closed will be enough to contain and extinguish the flames.
Whatever you do, don’t put water on a grease fire, he said. You know how fire experts always say that water will spread a grease fire? It really will.
Mosby offered other tips for avoiding cooking-related fires. Don’t wear loose clothing while cooking, he said, and don’t drink alcohol.
Many people put out their own kitchen fires by covering a pan with a lid or using a fire extinguisher. But, he said, “if you have any doubt about fighting a fire, leave.”
All too often, Mosby and other firefighters encounter people who were embarrassed to call for help or thought their fire was too small to impose on the fire department.
“We’d rather come out and investigate and make sure it is fully out and fully extinguished than have someone think it is put out,” he said. “No one is going to be upset because we had to do what we are trained to do. We want to come out and make sure that you are OK.”
The firefighters will come and check places where the fire might have spread without your realizing it. If it got to a cabinet, for instance, the embers can be hot enough to catch the wall behind it on fire sometime later, or the ceiling above it.
“Fire likes to grow. If it gets past those cabinets, kitchen fires can quickly turn into house fires,” Mosby said.
The single most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to get smoke detectors and to keep them working, he said. Knowing that you have a potential fire can make all the difference.
“Everything else can be replaced — the kitchen, the home, the block — but we can’t replace the people.”
And don’t forget that kitchen fires can happen to anyone at any time.
“You’d be amazed at what a bag of popcorn can do,” he said....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2923729-8/kitchen-fires-can-pose-a-serious-risk-cook
By Daniel Neman/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7726723@yakimaherald.comThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:21:29 GMTManufacturers take a fresh look at healthful fare for a nation of grazersWed, 11 Feb 2015 21:09:13 GMTBy David Pierson
Los Angeles Times

Corintha Collins pours more Pasta Chips into a container at the Pasta Chips booth at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO — The next generation of food manufacturers are clamoring to satisfy your snack cravings. Just don’t expect another potato chip or pretzel.
At the annual Fancy Food Show in San Francisco last month, up-and-coming brands touted seaweed chips, toasted coconut shavings, kale crackers, Wagyu beef jerky and baked pasta bites.
Among them could be the next Super Bowl party staple. Today’s emphasis, however, is on guilt-free snacking — the holy grail of nosh. Manufacturers are banking on more healthful products, lower in fat, sugar and salt, but packing the same addictive punch as a can of Pringles chips.
“Even though they’re much healthier snacks, I’m hoping people don’t stop at one,” said Jerry Bello, maker of Pasta Chips, a ravioli-shaped crispy bite dusted with Italian seasonings.
The surge in snack options comes as Americans have transformed into a nation of grazers. The number of snacks consumed per day has doubled since the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
Over 90 percent of Americans say they nibble daily, amounting to a $28 billion annual industry for salty snacks alone, according to Nielsen.
Young consumers are driving the change. Rather than partaking in breakfast, lunch and dinner, they’re grubbing around the clock.
“Millennials are redefining snacks,” said Dwight Richmond, Whole Foods Market’s global purchasing coordinator. He and about 50 colleagues from the Austin-based grocery chain perused the latest offerings at the closely followed trade show, a sort of incubator and marketplace for food brands that aren’t quite mainstream and are typically found in higher-end stores.
“Instead of eating three square meals, they’re juicing and snacking,” said Richmond, who believes the shift away from junk food will grow as more consumers seek out simple, minimally processed fare.
Wendy Meraz, a 26-year-old college student, said she picks up healthful munchies from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to avoid snacking on processed junk food when attending classes.
“At my school, it’s so easy to eat bad snacks,” said Meraz as she sipped a smoothie chock full of spinach and kale at a juice bar in downtown Los Angeles. “I am against unhealthy snacks existing. It’s food for cheap industrial profit.”
James Russo, senior vice president of Global Consumer Insights at Nielsen, said nearly a quarter of Americans surveyed said they prefer a quick snack over a meal.
“Snacking seems to be replacing meals for many Americans and globally, because of convenience and also as a way to cut down on calories,” Russo said.
Among the new wave of more healthful brands is Dang, a maker of coconut chips. Crunchy and creamy, they are the invention of 30-year-old entrepreneur Vincent Kitirattragarn, who was inspired by preparing his mother’s Thai lettuce wraps.
“The wraps have seven ingredients, and one is toasted coconut,” said Kitirattragarn, who cornered a Whole Foods buyer three years ago at a Fancy Food Show on the East Coast to taste his chips. “So we bought shredded coconut, put it in a wok on low heat, and the smell filled up the whole house.”
The result was so delicious that the wraps became an afterthought. The Cornell-trained engineer decided to market the coconut slivers just as coconut oil and coconut water was gaining popularity.
A snack, Kitirattragarn reasoned, would command better placement in the grocery aisle than an ingredient, stashed in purgatory next to the chopped nuts and baking powder.
With $90,000 in startup capital, Kitirattragarn started developing new flavors to pair with the original chips (which include three ingredients: coconut, cane sugar and salt). There’s caramel and sea salt, chili lime, and to no one’s astonishment, bacon.
Dang, which is named after Kitirattragarn’s mother, is now available at Whole Foods and Sprouts, among others. It racked up $4 million in revenue last year.
Robert Mock and his three business partners were also inspired by an Asian ingredient: seaweed.
Three of his partners have children that attend the same school. They watched as the kids devoured seaweed snacks.
“I love seaweed, too, but I’m used to tortilla chips and queso,” Mock said.
So the dads started Ocean’s Halo, a company that introduced the Seaweed Chip, a crunchy green ribbon built for dipping. Every bite is packed with protein and vitamins. It’s also organic, gluten-free and low in fat — prerequisites for many of today’s discerning snackers.
“There’s nothing like it out there,” said Mock, who used to sell financial derivatives for JPMorgan. Now he’s wooing supermarket buyers at the Fancy Food Show.
The winter fair is in its 40th year. Originally geared toward imported European specialty food, it helped popularize brands such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Perrier sparkling water and Walkers Shortbread.
Snacks have always been central to the event, though the trends (think bagel chips and chocolate-covered pretzels) have come and gone. In one corner of the convention hall — tucked behind the chocolatiers, olive oil makers, seasoned salt purveyors, fermenters and sprouters — was Bello and his Pasta Chips.
The New Jersey native has a knack for inventing original snacks.
There were the Veggie Straws, chips that resemble hollow French fries that he sold to the Hain Celestial Group, owner of brands such as Terra Chips and Rice Dream.
Bello also developed Trader Joe’s Pita Bite Crackers and a biscotti he “Americanized” by using more butter and creating a softer center.
The Pasta Chips are his latest, inspired by a trip to Tuscany with his wife. It took two years of tinkering in the test kitchen to arrive at the proper snap around the edges and tenderness in the middle.
“If I didn’t, it would feel too much like a water cracker,” said Bello, whose company is based in Windermere, Fla.
Bello says his Pasta Chip has 20 percent less fat than a pita chip.
But for pure health food cred, there’s Way Better Snacks, a Minneapolis company that makes tortilla chips chocked with sprouted whole grains and seeds. Sprouting, they say, unlocks nutrients in the ingredients and allows for easier digestion.
“There’s so much competition in the snacking category,” said Jim Breen, the company’s founder and chief executive. “The key for us or anyone is simply being different.”...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2848773-8/manufacturers-take-a-fresh-look-at-healthful-fare
By David Pierson/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7530114@yakimaherald.comWed, 11 Feb 2015 21:09:13 GMTCupcakes: Little treats still a great way to enjoy dessertWed, 04 Feb 2015 21:17:27 GMTBy Susan Selasky
Detroit Free Press

Sylvia Rector/Detroit Free Press

The metro Detroit chain Just Baked is not alone in closing its corporate-owned cupcake shops. Crumbs Bake Shop, based in New York City, shut the doors on all 48 of its stores in July. (They’ve since reopened a store in Manhattan.)
And while you might have heard some folks say cupcakes are passé, we in the Free Press Test Kitchen disagree. Since the cupcake craze started more than 10 years ago, the little cakes have come a long way from the standard-variety school birthday treat we remember from childhood.
Here are five reasons why we will always love cupcakes (plus some of our favorite cupcake recipes, too):
1. What’s on top: We love the creativity fostered by frosting — from gussied-up buttercreams in wild colors and flavors, to light and airy meringues and decadent chocolate ganache. And then there’s the endless array of decorations available. Of course there are the simple sprinkles, chocolate curls and candy. But so many went further with toppings like candied bacon, pretzels, potato chips, mini-action figures and dolls.
2. What’s inside: Cupcakes jumped from using a plain boxed cake mix to doctored-up mixes with the addition of puddings, spices or nuts or having a theme. There are red velvet, rocky road brownie, peanut butter-infused and even cheesecake cupcakes. Injecting a baked cupcake with jams, cream fillings and frosting is the norm.
3. The pretty presentation: Those fluted paper or foil liners have come a long way. Tons of colors, designs, sizes are sold at grocery stores, craft stores and big box retailers. There are even holders for the cupcakes already in liners. Cupcakes have become the centerpiece of many dessert tables, whether they are displayed on tiers, turned into tasty towers or frosted together to form cakes for any special occasion.
4. Kid-friendly: Cupcakes have always been — and continue to be — a favorite among the younger set. They are the perfect size for smaller hands (unless you splurge for the gargantuan size) and decorating them can be fun for all ages (just watch for the little finger-lickers).
5. Travel well: These tasty treats can travel in style (not the foil-lined shirt boxes you might remember from decades past). Now, there are a variety of handy cupcake carriers, in many shapes and sizes, for easy transport so there’s less mess and fewer frosting mishaps from cupcakes slipping and sliding along the way.
Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60 percent cacoa), broken
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 vanilla beans, split
1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with 16 paper liners.
In a small saucepan, combine cherries with water. Bring to a boil. Transfer mixture (cherries and water) to a food processor. Add cocoa, chocolate and butter, and pulse until combined. Cool 1 minute. Add brown sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, and puree until almost smooth.
Pulse in eggs until well combined. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl and add to food processor. Pulse until just combined.
Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven until tops are slightly domed and firm to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool cupcakes in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on rack.
Scrape vanilla bean seeds into bowl. Add cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar and beat well. Pipe or spread frosting onto cupcakes.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling
1 box (18.25 ounces) chocolate cake mix
1 container (8 ounces) frozen nondairy whipped topping, thawed
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
Amaretto Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow crème
21/4 to 23/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons almond-flavored liqueur or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Toasted sliced almonds (optional)
Fresh raspberries (optional)
Prepare the cake mix following cupcake instructions. Let cupcakes cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat together the whipped topping and cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Add the preserves, beating until the mixture is smooth. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the mixture into a squeeze bottle or use a pastry bag with a narrow (about 1/8-inch) tip. Insert tip into the top of each cupcake and squeeze a good tablespoon of filling into each center. It’s OK if some seeps out the top. Repeat with all cupcakes.
To make the frosting, in a medium bowl beat the butter and marshmallow crème at medium speed with an electric mixture until smooth. Gradually beat in 21/4 cups of the confectioner’s sugar. Add more if it is not sweet enough. Add the almond liqueur and beat until smooth.
Frost the cupcakes and garnish with sliced almonds and raspberries, if desired.
Brown-Sugar Pound Cupcakes With Brown-Butter Glaze
Cupcakes:
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
21/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Brown-butter glaze:
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 4 tablespoons whole milk
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
Scrape sides of bowl. Divide the batter among muffin cups, filling each three-fourths full. Bake for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Carefully pour butter into a bowl, leaving sediment behind.
Add the sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk to the butter and stir until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add more milk.
Set rack with cooled cupcakes over a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spoon glaze over cupcake tops, and let stand until set. If glaze gets too hard, reheat it gently so you can spoon it. Serve glazed cupcakes immediately.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
5 large egg whites (at room temperature)
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into pieces
11/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
In a heat-proof bowl, place the sugar and egg whites. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and mixture registers 160 degrees, about 6 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated. If the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added, don’t worry. It will become smooth again with continued beating. Add the vanilla, and beat just until combined.
Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. If using buttercream within several hours, cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature in a cool environment. Or transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator, up to three days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature and beat on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 minutes.
Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting
3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 ounces (11/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
11/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 large eggs
4 very ripe large bananas, mashed (about 2 cups), plus sliced bananas for garnish
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
Caramel Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup heavy cream
Swiss Meringue Buttercream (see recipe)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla.
Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the banana and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the pecans. You can leave out a small amount of chopped pecans to sprinkle on the tops if desired.
Scrape sides of bowl. Divide the batter among muffin cups, filling each three-fourths full. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
To make the frosting: Bring half cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar and the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Wash sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming. Cook, undisturbed, until caramel is dark amber. Remove from heat and add cream slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. When cool, fold in Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with caramel buttercream. Frosted cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days. Top with banana slices before serving....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2833044-8/cupcakes-little-treats-still-a-great-way-to
By Susan Selasky/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7488617@yakimaherald.comWed, 04 Feb 2015 21:17:27 GMTLessons we can learn from potatoesWed, 28 Jan 2015 22:15:15 GMTBy Savannah Tranchell
Yakima Herald-Republic

GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Food editor Savannah Tranchell contemplates a potato while preparing to embark on a new adventure in her home state of Idaho.

Food has a strange way of making an impression on us.
Happy or sad, we associate particular smells and tastes with moments in time, locations and people.
Bing cherries and Oreo cookies will forever remind me of summers at my grandpa’s house in Cambridge, Idaho.
Fries with tarter sauce? That’s me and Grandma at the Clayton Burger in tiny Clayton.
Wild game, unfortunately, will forever be linked to memories of my ex — and tainted, just a little.
I remember what I ate the first time I got food poisoning. And the second. And the third.
Cream puffs will always remind me of that night my husband proposed, at the end of a trail of Hershey kisses from the front door.
Whiffs of cinnamon and cooking bacon remind me of my mom at Christmas, making Bacon Brunch and cinnamon rolls to eat after we open presents.
It’s amazing how food can transport us through time.
Slightly sweet, soft and chewy fry bread topped with beans and taco meat? I’m instantly in the Custer Battlefield Trading Post just outside of Crow Agency, Mont., where I ate my first Indian taco. The cafe and tourist-trinket shop was the perfect halfway point between my home in Rapid City, S.D., and my dad in Lewistown, Mont. Those tacos were perfect, and just the right pick-me-up after suffering through miles and miles of driving across the prairie.
The flavors of Rapid City, where I lived for three years, are wrapped up in my friend’s grandmother’s Christmas lefse, the sweet-fruity barbecue sauce at my favorite wing place and the tomato bisque with artichoke hearts from Botticelli’s, the Italian restaurant a mere three doors down from my office.
All wonderful tastes and memories that make my mouth water a little and my stomach rumble.
And yet, something missing.
Perhaps it’s that neither the Black Hills of South Dakota, the empty prairie of Montana nor even the high desert of Yakima are home for me. I’m a North Idaho girl, born and raised. And while Idaho’s most famous produce — the lowly potato — may not be as flavorful as an apple or as juicy as Yakima’s summer peaches and cherries, I find it’s a good metaphor for how I hope to live my life.
Potatoes are excellent for cooking because they offer substance and versatility; they absorb the flavors around them, becoming complementary and quite at home in a variety of dishes. You can serve them spicy, savory and salty, baked, boiled, mashed, cheese-covered, in soups, stews, as side dishes and as stars of the show. They’re easy to grow and hard to kill. If you keep one too long and it starts sprouting, just stick it in the ground and see what happens.
And (maybe only my fellow journalists will understand this), they can grow in dark, sort of dirty places.
I’m approaching a decade of wandering from Idaho, and while I was more than ready to leave, no place since has been “home.”
This potato is ready to put out feeders in home soil. That is why after nearly four years in Yakima and writing food stories here at the Herald-Republic, I am moving back to Idaho this week to work at my alma mater, the University of Idaho in Moscow.
I have met wonderful people across the Yakima Valley — from farmers living outside Ellensburg to coffee-loving priests and foodie sisters in Goldendale. Restaurateurs and chefs, personal cooks and grandmas with great recipes. I’ve enjoyed telling your stories, trying your recipes and creating new food memories. I will be leaving the Yakima Valley with a stash of the locally produced goods that I can’t live without (and, likely, will have to beg my colleagues left behind to mail me refills when I run low).
Hints of cilantro. The sweet, musty smell of processing hops. A crispy tortilla. An apple picked from the tree that morning. A blackberry I had to fight the brambles to claim. Peaches — oh my god, the peaches. All will be forever embedded in my memory as the tastes of Yakima. Flavors I hope I’ve absorbed, complemented and helped complete.
For all of you who shared with me, welcomed me into your kitchen, cooked with me — thank you. Your unique flavor is part of what makes this Valley special to food-lovers everywhere. I am proud to have been a part of your food memory, to see your family history come alive in recipes, to hear your memories, even if just for an afternoon.
So keep cooking, keep creating, keep growing and picking and canning and eating and enjoying.
And from time to time, try to be like the potatoes: absorb, complement. Be flexible and resilient. Sprout where you are planted. Thrive in dark places.
Put down roots.
• Savannah Tranchell has been the Taste editor and Appetite blogger at the Yakima Herald-Republic since May 2011....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2793868-8/lessons-we-can-learn-from-potatoes
Savannah Tranchell/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7385049@yakimaherald.comWed, 28 Jan 2015 22:15:15 GMTThese Super snacks have an Arizona themeWed, 28 Jan 2015 16:50:41 GMTBy Bill Daley
Chicago Tribune

Photos by BILL HOGAN/Chicago Tribune
The Sonoran Hot Dog has a complex architecture, built with bacon, guacamole, refried beans, cheese, onion, tomato, salsa and mayo. Below is a spicy dip made with tepary beans, a variety native to Arizona.

Whether you’re down with the New England Patriots (huh) or upholding the Seattle Seahawks (yay!), you and your friends and family can chow down on Super Bowl Sunday with harmonious gusto. Because no matter which team you root for, everyone will get behind a spread of Southwestern noshes.
Fun, casual food is always a given for Super Bowl parties. This year, though, set your theme in Arizona, site of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
Two snacks that speak of Arizona: A lively dip made with native white tepary beans, and Sonoran hot dogs, the near-iconic frank of the Grand Canyon State. What, you might ask, is a Sonoran hot dog, aka hot dog estilo Sonora?
Bruce Kraig describes it in his book, “Hot Dog: A Global History,” as “one of the more interesting cross-cultural hot dog creations ... found in the Mexican state of Sonora and in neighboring Arizona.” This bacon-wrapped hot dog is grilled and, according to Kraig, dressed with “pinto beans, grilled onions, hot red or yellow pepper, grated cheese, chopped onions, chopped coriander, chopped tomato, hot chili sauce, mayonnaise and mustard.”
Mayonnaise? Yes, and it’s as much a must-have ingredient as the bacon, beans and hot sauce, according to Michael Stern, the Bethel, Conn.-based co-author of “Roadfood” and other books chronicling America’s dining traditions.
“In terms of flavor, there’s a wonderful, surprising balance to the spiciness,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s a sweet, rich, dairy, eggy thing ... a seemingly minor character but without it the Sonoran hot dog is different.”
The rest of the condiments can vary from recipe to recipe. The bun can also differ. A Mexican bolillo roll is the standard, but Stern says any “nice, big soft roll” will work. No matter the bun or the topping, the result should be “the proverbial ‘gut buster,’” declares “Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America,” a book co-authored by Kraig.
Gut-busting is certainly an asset for many Super Bowl snackers. Gwen Ashley Walters, a cookbook author and blogger (penandfork.com) based in Scottsdale, Ariz., however, offers a white bean dip as an equally lively if less filling option, especially when it comes to what you choose to use as edible scoopers.
“For my husband, I would do carrot sticks or celery sticks,” she says. “For me? I would have the best corn chips I could get my hands on.”
Walters deliberately chose tepary beans for the dip because the beans are from Arizona. “They grow very well because they don’t need much water,” she says.
Sonoran Hot Dogs
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
This recipe from “Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America” calls for store-bought refried beans, guacamole and salsa verde; you can always make your own. “In Arizona these are served with a grilled guero chile and a grilled knob onion,” write authors Bruce Kraig and Patty Carroll, noting you can substitute an Anaheim pepper for the guero.
4 hot dogs (6 to a pound better)
4 strips bacon (chicken or turkey bacon are fine)
4 bolillos (Mexican rolls) or other soft roll, split but not cut through
3/4 cup refried beans
1/2 cup prepared guacamole
1/2 cup shredded quesadilla cheese or another Mexican melting cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large tomato (or more), finely diced
Mayonnaise
1/2 cup salsa verde (or more if needed)
1. Wrap a strip of bacon around each hot dog; place on a hot griddle or grill. Cook until bacon is crispy. (The cooking time will vary with heat of grill.)
2. Meanwhile, place a layer of beans and guacamole on the sides of each split bolillo. Settle a hot dog in each bun. Cover each with a layer of cheese, onion and tomato. Garnish with mayonnaise and salsa verde.
Nutrition information per serving: 660 calories, 28 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 53 mg cholesterol, 74 g carbohydrates, 27 g protein, 1,640 mg sodium, 6 g fiber
Southwestern Tepary Bean Dip
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 11/2 hours
Makes: 4 cups
This recipe by Gwen Ashley Walters calls for white tepary beans, which are grown in Arizona. The beans soak up lots of liquid during cooking, so make sure to cover them generously with water.
You may substitute other dried beans, like small navy beans. A larger bean should be soaked overnight. Walters’ recipe also calls for chiltepin, a very small dried chili “that packs a whopping punch.” Substitute red chili flakes or omit the heat entirely.
Walters uses Mexican dried oregano, but Mediterranean oregano will do. Serve the dip with vegetables. Walters suggests carrots, bell peppers and jicama; crackers or tortilla chips, especially those made with blue corn.
11/2 cups dried tepary beans
11/2 teaspoons sea salt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Zest of half a lemon (1 teaspoon)
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground Mexican oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
2 to 3 chiltepin chilies, optional
Cilantro sprig
1. Pick through the beans and remove any sticks, stones or other debris. Rinse well and drain. Place in a saucepan; cover with at least 4 inches of water. Heat to a boil; then reduce heat to low. Simmer until tender but not mushy, adding more liquid as necessary to keep covered, about 11/2 hours. Add 1 teaspoon salt in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.
2. Place the beans in a food processor. Pour in 3/4 to 1 cup of reserved cooking liquid (or water); process until chunky. Add more cooking liquid or water if necessary to get a thick, dip-like consistency. Add the oil, lemon zest and juice, garlic, cumin, oregano, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and chilies; pulse until smooth. Taste; add more salt or lemon juice if needed. Transfer to a bowl. May be made up to two days in advance. Store covered in the fridge.
3. To serve, garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, top with a sprig of cilantro. Serve with sliced vegetables, crackers or tortilla chips.
Nutrition information per tablespoon: 22 calories, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 66 mg sodium, 1 g fiber...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2864483-8/these-super-snacks-have-an-arizona-theme
By Bill Daley/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7571409@yakimaherald.comWed, 28 Jan 2015 16:50:41 GMTOn the Menu: La Mira in SunnysideThu, 22 Jan 2015 22:15:03 GMTBy Ross Courtney
Yakima Herald-Republic

ROSS COURTNEY/Yakima Herald-Republic
The costillas en salsa verde were a warm, comforting lunch of pork ribs in a green sauce on a cold day at La Mira, a new restaurant in downtown Sunnyside.

La Mira is new to Sunnyside, one of the first new restaurants to open in the renovated downtown sector. The establishment looks great, with almost all tables offering nice views of the improved streetscape of Edison Avenue.
I stopped by on a cold day needing a place to edit some photos I had just finished taking. The establishment has free Wi-Fi.
However, the restaurant was so new that the staff hadn’t even hooked up the coffee pot. So when I asked for something hot to drink, the waitress smiled, shrugged and offered me tequila.
I passed. I was working, and it wasn’t even noon yet. But I liked the way she was thinking.
The costillas I ordered were plenty hot. The tender pork ribs cooked in a green sauce warmed my insides.
La Mira offers a full Mexican food menu with an emphasis on seafood dishes using shrimp, prawns, red snapper, tilapia and others.
Prices range from about $8 for lunch items to $17 for seafood dinners.
Owners plan to add karaoke soon, too. I’m not sure if that’s before or after the coffee pot, but I’m coming back to find out.
La Mira
Location: 633 E. Edison Ave., Sunnyside
Phone: 509-515-0615
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2803036-8/on-the-menu-la-mira-in-sunnyside
RCOURTNEY/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7408419@yakimaherald.comThu, 22 Jan 2015 22:15:03 GMTOn the Menu: The Valley Cafe in EllensburgThu, 15 Jan 2015 22:15:20 GMTBy Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

ELLENSBURG — The Valley Cafe in this little college town is one of the best restaurants in Central Washington and has been for decades.
Its unassuming, unpretentious elegance is perfect for a romantic night out or a special-occasion dinner. But it’s also a really nice place for a casual soup, salad or sandwich lunch, which is what I had on a visit last week with my wife.
The sandwiches and salads run from $12 to $15, and it’s $4.25 for a cup of soup. Between us, we split the Reuben sandwich, the portobello caprese salad and a cup of Tuscan bread soup.
The soup was bright and fresh tasting, thickened to a hearty consistency by chunks of bread. The sandwich was stacked high with New York-quality corned beef and sauerkraut, with Russian dressing and horseradish sauce on the side along with potato chips. It was everything I want a Reuben to be.
The salad was a new spin on the classic caprese. Rather than just mozzarella, tomato and basil, it featured those ingredients plus big slices of portobello mushrooms on a bed of mixed greens, drizzled with balsamic dressing.
All things considered, it was a very pleasant lunch. Really, though, it made me want to return for dinner sometime soon. That’s when the Valley Cafe really shines, with a few inventive dishes sprinkled among classic favorites. That’s also when the dimmed lights and original 1930s Art Deco design lend the place an undeniable romance.
The Valley Cafe
Address: 105 W. Third Ave. in Ellensburg
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. lunch, 4-6 p.m. happy hour, 5-8 p.m. dinner (5-9 p.m. dinner on Fridays and Saturdays)
Online: www.valleycafeellensburg.com
Phone: 509-925-3050...]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2802556-8/on-the-menu-the-valley-cafe-in-ellensburg
PMUIR/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7407313@yakimaherald.comThu, 15 Jan 2015 22:15:20 GMTNepalese dish worth the effort of tracking down goat meatWed, 14 Jan 2015 09:01:46 GMTBy Anup Kaphle
The Washington Post

This has a Washington Post video attached When I was growing up in Nepal in the 1990s, I couldn’t wait for Saturdays. What made them extraordinary wasn’t the fact that my father would make me go buy milk from the government dairy truck at dawn, or help him clean the garage and give the German shepherd a bath.
It was that Saturday was goat curry day.
We lived in Pokhara, a city known mostly for its lakes and views of some of the world’s highest mountains. And on most days, we ate vegetables — almost anything green cooked with potatoes in cumin and coriander paste. On occasional Fridays, my father would bring home fresh fish from Fewa Lake, caught by security guards in the local irrigation office where he worked. We called those “Good Fridays” because he and my mother would prepare an elaborate meal — deep-fried trout marinated in curry and yogurt and a thick fish-head stew — while my brother and I studied our multiplication tables.
If Fridays were good, Saturdays were grand. After my father and I would return from the butcher with bags of perfectly cubed goat meat, Mom would start cooking: In our tiny kitchen she would chop red onions and tomatoes, soak cumin and coriander seeds in water, and then grind them with garlic and green chilies on a flat stone with a pestle. As rice, dal and vegetables cooked separately, she would saute the onions, basil leaves, cloves and cardamom, then fry the goat in a pressure cooker sitting on a coiled clay heater. She would scoop the paste from the stone, add it to the cooker, throw in a few pinches of turmeric and a little salt, and close the lid. When the pressure cooker whistled for the third time — 25 to 30 minutes later — lunch was almost ready.
The dish that emerged was something my father would describe as first-class khasi ko maasu: extraordinary goat curry.That’s how I became obsessed with goat. But in the 11 years I’ve lived in the United States, feeding my obsession hasn’t been so simple, particularly since I crave the dishes of my boyhood.
Unlike the Nepali dishes at home, the Jamaican goat curry I’ve tried at Caribbean restaurants in New York and Washington is cooked with potatoes and a single curry powder, rather than all the spices that add so much complex flavor. The ones served in Indian and Nepali restaurants are slightly better, but most of them use the same curry sauce they use in chicken and lamb dishes, and they often serve more bones than succulent meat. That’s why I’d rather cook my own goat. When I make goat dishes with my Nepali friends, it’s usually over a weekend, evoking memories of those Saturdays back home, where we sit together and eat for hours. Cooking for non-Nepali friends, however, is always different. Many who have never eaten it ask a series of questions — Why would you eat such a cute animal? Does it smell? Is it tastier than rabbit? — before they are convinced it is worth trying. As for me, I can’t think of a better meat. It’s gamey and, especially when the meat cooks with spices, wonderfully unique; goat manages to taste so rich even though the meat is lean.
Goat meat is becoming more accessible here, thanks in part to immigrants like me from parts of the world where it’s appreciated more than in America — not just Nepal but India, the Caribbean, the Middle East and elsewhere.
None of that was an issue when I was a child, when goat was such a prominent part of our culture.
On those grand Saturdays, the excitement would start early; I would join my father on a short walk to see Mustakim, the butcher my father had been buying meat from since 1983, when he first moved to Pokhara. We would wait in a long line, then when Mustakim would see us, he would ask, “How many kilos today, sir?”
Unlike other customers, my father was very particular about what parts of the goat he wanted. “First, promise me this is not sheep,” he would occasionally say to Mustakim, wanting assurance that it was freshly slaughtered and indeed goat, not an old sheep left from the previous day. Then he would ask for a part of the upper foreshank, cuts from below the neck, a little bit of short loin, a few chunks from the neck and a big part of the leg — all chopped into even pieces. Before he paid, he’d ask for a fistful of goat fat.
If my father was a goat connoisseur, my grandfather was his guru. Every year for Dashain, the biggest festival of the year for Nepali Hindus, the entire family would get together at my grandparents’ house in the village; it was a seven-hour bus ride from Pokhara, followed by a five-hour walk. But long before the 10-day festival began every fall, my grandfather would start raising two goats in his thatched shed: one to take three hours away to the temple to sacrifice in the name of Goddess Durga, the other for the family feast. When I would visit in winter, I’d sit next to him by the fire during dinner, when he would take a lump of cooked rice in his palm, pour a ladle of ghee (clarified butter) into it and shape it into an oval. One by one, he would form them and put them on a banana leaf next to his plate as he ate. After dinner, he would grab those rice balls and head to the stable and the baby goats.
“We have to fatten them up for Dashain, understand?” he would say.
Eight months later, when we met for the festival, the kids had grown to become beasts, looking both feisty and delicious. And in our household — I’d argue this is true in most Nepali households — n No part of the goat went to waste. From ears to entrails, there was a delicacy for everything. Even the blood collected during slaughter (from a steel bowl held under its neck) was used: Once it coagulated, it was sauteed in oil, garlic and coriander for the first dish.
When the entire goat was butchered, my parents would get to work. My father was known for his goat pakku, also called kaalo maasu (“blackened meat”), named because the goat is fried for hours in a giant copper pot until it blackens, and then mixed with about a dozen spices. Over the years, I watched my father make goat pakku so many times that I can still remember at what intervals he’d stir it, with a wooden spoon so big it looked like an oar.
While my father was marinating the tenderloin in mustard oil, garlic, ginger and cumin to make kebabs, my cousins and I would steal parts of the ear and some boneless remains from the neck of the goat, plus a matchstick and a bunch of hay from the pile meant to feed the buffaloes. We’d run downhill to the river, start a fire, roast the goat pieces and devour them, savoring the joy of something we kept just to us boys.
On the last day of the festival, my grandfather would bring from the temple the head of the sacrificed goat; the cheeks and tongue would be fried, a stew made from the bones.
A couple of years after I came to the United States for college in 2003, I heard the news: My parents had given up meat. They had decided to follow a religious movement within Hinduism that worships Shiva and bars its adherents from eating meat. They’d given up garlic and onions, too.
When I returned home the first time, my mother served a seven-course meal, entirely with vegetables. I worried that my culinary adventures were over. How would I still get my goat fix? I’d cooked lunches and dinners in the house since I was little, but I didn’t know how to perfect a delicious goat curry, let alone pakku, roast, kidneys and entrails.
I decided to restart the adventures in my own kitchen.
In college, it was hard to find goat, so I’d buy lamb and make a simple curry with onions, tomatoes, cumin and coriander. After four years, when I went to graduate school in New York, I took frequent trips to Jackson Heights and Astoria, buying several kilos of goat meat, storing them in the freezer and cooking on Sunday evenings so it lasted me the entire week.
In the beginning, I used to call my mother and ask for the sequence I should follow to make these dishes, but most of the time I simply try to remember how my parents cooked. One year I bought half a goat, cooked it, and ate it throughout Christmas break with one of my best friends.
My parents visited the United States for the first time during those grad school years. My mom cooked lavish meals of vegetables — shiitake mushrooms, cauliflower, mustard greens, split beans, lentils — and no goat. A few days before they returned to Nepal, I decided to open my mouth.
“Papa, I understand you and Mom are never eating meat again,” I said. “But will you still cook it for me?”
He looked at my mother, she smiled, and then he said, “OK, go buy it, and I’ll make it for you.”
It took him three batches to turn the 11 pounds I bought into goat pakku, and almost the entire day. I saved it in the freezer, and for weeks after they’d left, I would take about half a dozen pieces out, re-fry them in onions and tomatoes, add water, then let it simmer over low heat. My Saturdays had become grander again.
Once I got a job and had a decent kitchen, I made cooking goat a priority. Goat was expensive in Washington. But so was booze, I rationalized. On weekends and during special gatherings with my Nepali friends to celebrate our festivals, you know what I cook. Groups of us periodically go to a farm in Manassas, Va., where we buy a goat and have it slaughtered and butchered. I take a few pounds and fry it for about 45 minutes (it goes much more quickly than my father’s huge batches), then throw in a dozen spices and stir it almost as carefully as my father did, making sure the meat doesn’t disintegrate as it darkens.
Hadi, the butcher I go to these days at Halalco in Falls Church, Va., immigrated here from Pakistan. During my first couple of visits, he thought I was Pakistani, too, as I would speak to him in my weak Urdu, asking for parts of the goat as specifically as my father would.
Over the years, my parents have become even more devout. Meat is not allowed in the house. When I visit Nepal, I occasionally buy mutton or goat pickle in a jar, and hide it under my bed....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2792057-8/nepalese-dish-worth-the-effort-of-tracking-down
/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7380195@yakimaherald.comWed, 14 Jan 2015 09:01:46 GMTWelcome to soup seasonWed, 07 Jan 2015 16:58:17 GMTBy Russ Parsons
Los Angeles Times

Photos by Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times
Soups are perfect this time of year. Try this Braised Greens and Potatoes with Lemon and Fennel. If your soup is still missing a little something, try adding just a drizzle of olive oil to provide some lift.

I will bow to no one in my affection for holiday cooking. For our Christmas open house every year, I make gallons of posole and black beans. One family holiday tradition is spending a day decorating hundreds of cookies. There is no Christmas Eve without all-you-can eat Dungeness crab nor Christmas morning without a breakfast with migas and julekake. The month of December seems to be one solid buffet of parties, dinners and an almost constant barrage of cookies, tamales and big hunks of roasted meat.
I love it all, but after a solid month, I need a break. Maybe a quiet dinner in front of the fire with “Foyle’s War” or “Longmire.” After a long workday, you won’t believe how reassuring a baked sweet potato with good butter and lots of black pepper can be.
If I’ve got a little more time and feel like puttering, I usually find myself turning to different kinds of vegetable soups or stews. Honestly, I sometimes think you could throw an almost random selection of vegetables in a pot and bring them to a boil and wind up with something pretty tasty — if you know what you’re doing. Here are a few guidelines.
• Choose carefully: Let me start by apologizing for that word “random.” In cooking — or at least good cooking — nothing is truly random. But you’d be surprised how far you can get by sticking with that old local-and-seasonal thing. Potatoes, fennel, winter squash and greens? I can think of half a dozen dishes without even trying.
• You need starch: It gives soup heft. If you’re using pasta, rice or grains, cook them first and add them at the end so they don’t muddy the broth or overcook. If you’re using potatoes, use smooth-skinned boilers and add them early, so they have time to absorb flavors.
• When in doubt, add greens: And then if you’re still uncertain, add more greens. I don’t know a cook who doesn’t have a few bags of odd scraps of lettuce, kale and chard in the crisper drawer. Soup is a great way to get the most out of them, and the more (and the more kinds), the merrier.
• Water’s fine: Sure, you can use a vegetable broth if you want, but don’t overlook simply adding water — that way, you also can control the amount of salt more accurately. If you’ve got the right blend of vegetables, you won’t need any added flavors.
• Season assertively: If there is one common fault with vegetable soups, it’s timidity in seasoning, particularly salt. As always, you don’t want the food to taste salty, but the right amount awakens all the other flavors. This is especially true if you’ve added starches — they suck salt out of a soup like nobody’s business.
Acidity is a seasoning, too. This is overlooked by too many cooks, but if a soup or stew tastes a little flat, and you’ve seasoned it correctly with salt, try adding some vinegar or lemon juice to finish. As little as a teaspoon can make a big difference, giving the flavors a strong backbone to hang from.
• Don’t fear fat: You’ve salted correctly and added just the right dash of lemon juice, but the dish still lacks something? A drizzle of olive oil, a dollop of herb paste or a shaving of hard cheese such as Parmigiano or ricotta salata can provide a final lift. Because the rest of the soup is basically nothing but vegetables and water, you can liven it up a little.
Here are a couple of very different but equally delicious examples from two of my favorite cookbooks of 2014 — “Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts” by Aglaia Kremezi and “Persiana” from Sabrina Ghayour. One is the essence of Greek family cooking — homely in appearance but with a depth of flavor that comes only from careful, long cooking. The other is simple to make but striking enough to be the centerpiece of a holiday dinner. But even given its gorgeous looks, Ghayour promises “there are no rules for making it; the simple truth is that this soup should contain whatever you might find lying around the house and in your fridge.”
Braised Greens And Potatoes with Lemon And Fennel
1/2 cup olive oil, plus good, fruity olive oil for drizzling, divided
2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 carrots, quartered and cut in 1-inch lengths
4 green onions, white and most of green parts, thinly sliced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and coarsely chopped, fronds and tender stalks reserved
4-6 fingerling potatoes, cut in bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle or finely ground
2 pounds mixed greens, spinach, sorrel, Swiss chard, outer leaves of romaine lettuce, pea shoots, nettle tops or any combination of sweet leafy greens, large leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup water
1/4 preserved lemon, flesh discarded, rinsed and chopped
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill or wild fennel, divided
1 to 2 teaspoons marash pepper or a good pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
In a wide, deep soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the carrots, green onions, fennel bulb, potatoes and fennel seeds, stir to coat with the oil and cook an additional 3 minutes.
Add the greens in batches, starting with the larger leaves and gradually adding the smaller, more tender ones. Stir a few times to help the leaves wilt and reduce in size, then add the wine and cook for 1 minute; add the water, the preserved lemon and salt to taste.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the greens and potatoes are tender and most of the juices have been absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. If there is still too much liquid, raise the heat to high and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced, up to an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, half the dill, the fennel fronds and stalks and sprinkle with the red pepper; toss, taste and adjust the seasonings as desired. Cook an additional 2 minutes to marry the flavors, then sprinkle with remaining dill.
Serve warm or at room temperature, drizzled with the good, fruity olive oil.
Spiced Vegetable Soup
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
11/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 11/2-inch chunks
2 large onions, diced, plus 1 large onion cut in half and thinly sliced into half-moons, separated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and finely chopped
3 boiling potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 11/2-inch chunks
5 tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
3 teaspoons hot pepper paste, such as harissa
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 (14- to 15-1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (reserve the liquid plus a couple of handfuls of chickpeas to garnish)
1 large zucchini, finely diced
31/2 ounces feta cheese
Herb Oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, more if needed
Good handful parsley
Good handful dill
Good handful cilantro
Handful shelled pistachios
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
For oil: Put the olive oil, parsley, dill and cilantro in a bowl along with the pistachios, lemon juice and some salt and pepper, and blitz with a hand blender until the mixture is finely chopped and has the consistency of pesto. If you need to slacken the mixture, add a bit more oil.
For soup: Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to generously coat the base of the pan. Add the butternut squash, diced onions, garlic, leeks and potatoes, and cook, without browning, until the vegetables soften slightly, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomatoes, cumin, cinnamon, paprika and hot pepper paste, and give it all a good stir to ensure the spices evenly coat the vegetables. Cover the vegetables completely with water, add a generous amount of salt (I would suggest at least 4 teaspoons) and black pepper. Stir once more and continue to cook at a gentle boil until the squash is tender when poked with a knife, about 30 minutes.
Puree the mixture in a food processor or blender until you get a lovely, even, smooth soup. Once smooth, add the chickpeas and their liquid, and stir well.
Adjust the consistency of the soup with additional water if desired, then taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Cook an additional 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the zucchini and cook for a final 20 minutes before serving.
While the soup is cooking, drizzle some olive oil into a large frying pan set over high heat, and fry the sliced onion until browned and crispy. Add the reserved chickpeas and brown them along with the onions. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions and chickpeas from the pan and set aside. This makes about 3 1/2 quarts soup.
Pour the soup into large bowls (preferably wide, shallow ones), then generously crumble the feta on top. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of the herb oil into each bowl over the feta. Finally, add the reserved crispy fried onions and chickpeas....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2792040-8/welcome-to-soup-season
By Russ Parsons/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7380155@yakimaherald.comWed, 07 Jan 2015 16:58:17 GMTNorthwest Wine: Reds shine in annual Platinum JudgingMon, 05 Jan 2015 22:15:34 GMTBy Eric Degerman and Andy Perdue
Great Northwest Wine

Every year for the past decade-and-a-half, Wine Press Northwest magazine has conducted a year-end competition. Called the Platinum Judging, it is meant to showcase some of the best wines in the Pacific Northwest.
To gain entry into the competition, a wine must have won a gold medal or better at a professionally judged wine competition somewhere in the world. This year, Northwest wineries earned more than 1,700 gold medals — with many winning multiple golds across the country.
For the 15th annual Platinum Judging, Wine Press Northwest magazine in Kennewick, Wash., received more than 600 entries, making this a true best-of-the-best beauty contest.
The results of all Platinum winners are in the Winter issue of Wine Press Northwest, which is out this week to subscribers and on newsstands. This week and next, we will take a look at some of the top wines. This week will focus on the reds. Ask for them at your favorite wine merchant, or call the wineries directly. For full results, go to www.winepressnw.com.
• Alexandria Nicole Cellars 2011 Mr. Big Petite Sirah, Horse Heaven Hills, $45: This big, broad-shouldered red is rich in aromas of blueberry and blackberry, followed by bold, jammy flavors of blackberry, black pepper and boysenberry. Hints of spice and oak add depth and complexity, and a surprisingly gracious midpalate helps make this a complete wine. (14.6% alc.)
• William Church Winery 2011 Gamache Vineyards Malbec, Columbia Valley, $36: Aromas of cherry and spices are followed by suave flavors of dark fruit and black pepper backed by elegant tannins. As great as this wine is now, another two years of patience will likely reap greater rewards. (14% alc.)
• Kyra Wines 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, $20: Moses Lake owner/winemaker Kyra Baerlocher is best known for making some of the finest Chenin Blanc in the Pacific Northwest, but she also crafts delicious reds, including this superb and affordable Cab. (13.5% alc.)
• Dusted Valley Vintners 2011 V.R. Special Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, $53: The Dusted Valley boys continue to craft some of the finest red wines anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. While their specialty has been on rich Rhône varieties, they’ve shown a knack for Bordeaux reds, too. (14.7% alc.)
• Whidbey Island Winery 2012 Dolcetto, Yakima Valley, $25: This luscious Italian variety opens with beautiful purple color followed by aromas and flavors of raspberry, cherry and dried blueberry. It’s perfectly round with sweet tannins and beautifully balanced. (14.9% alc.)
• Daven Lore Winery 2011 Grenache, Yakima Valley, $35: Yakima Valley winemaker Gord Taylor’s Grenache is about as good as it gets in Washington. It opens with aromas of blueberry, pomegranate, Baker’s chocolate and fresh tarragon. On the palate, incredible flavors of ripe raspberry and cranberry intermingle with a hint of sage in the finish. (14.5% alc.)
• Clearwater Canyon Cellars 2012 Merlot, Idaho, $25: This Lewiston, Idaho, winery is winning big awards and accolades for nearly every wine it makes. This luscious Merlot — the best of this competition — comes from grapes in the proposed Lewis-Clark Valley. (13.7% alc.)
• Zerba Cellars 2010 Grenache, Columbia Valley, $38: This bright red wine is a spectacular achievement, thanks to aromas and flavors of blueberry pie, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper and just a hint of oak. Everything is in place, and the refreshing acidity gives this liveliness. (14.4% alc.)
• Two Mountain Winery 2009 Copeland Vineyard Brothers Cabernet Sauvignon, Rattlesnake Hills, $74: This astonishing Cab from a small producer operated by two brothers near the Yakima Valley town of Zillah, Wash., opens with notes of coffee, black cherry, mocha and clove, followed by flavors of blueberry, blackberry and vanilla. The tannins are firm without being too heavy-handed, and the finish is long and memorable. Enjoy this small-production wine with prime rib. (13.9% alc.)
• Eric Degerman and Andy Perdue run Great Northwest Wine, a news and information company. Learn more about wine at www.greatnorthwestwine.com....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2783482-8/northwest-wine-reds-shine-in-annual-platinum-judging
Savannah Tranchell/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7357683@yakimaherald.comMon, 05 Jan 2015 22:15:34 GMTOn the Menu: Cowiche Canyon KitchenThu, 01 Jan 2015 22:15:26 GMTBy Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

Cowiche Canyon Kitchen is everything I wanted it to be.
It’s a gorgeous space, cosmopolitan but recognizably of Yakima. And the ambience, even on its jam-packed first Friday in business, was welcoming and warm.
As for the food, it’s as-advertised. Nothing groundbreaking or inventive, just solid American fare done very well.
I ordered the barbecued pork ribs, one of the most expensive entrees on the menu at $25 (surpassed only by the wild Alaskan salmon, the roasted prime rib and the New York steak at $26, $29 and $29, respectively), and they were as good or better than any ribs you can get anywhere else around here. Meaty, fall-of-the-bone ribs, seasoned nicely and served with a nice vinegary “rib sauce,” which I also used as a condiment for the healthy portion of matchstick fries.
My wife got the steak frites for $17. We swapped plates halfway through, so we could get a little variety. I’m not sure which was better. The steak, a perfect medium-rare Wagyu bavette (flank steak), melted in my mouth. And I had no problems eating almost all of both portions of fries.
The cocktails were equally impressive. Cowiche Canyon Kitchen’s Icehouse Bar takes its cocktails as seriously as I do. We tested them first, ordering a Boulevardier, a favorite of mine and Alana’s. It was done right, so we tried one of the Icehouse originals, the Mt. Adams, featuring rye, Nonino, Ramazzotti and Jerry Thomas Bitters. It was very well-balanced and is definitely one to come back for. The drinks cost $10 apiece, which is right in line with what cocktails of this quality cost.
Cowiche Canyon Kitchen is going to be my go-to Yakima spot for special-occasion dinners, and a regular stop for cocktails....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2770557-8/on-the-menu-cowiche-canyon-kitchen
PMUIR/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7323349@yakimaherald.comThu, 01 Jan 2015 22:15:26 GMTStumped on last-minute gifts? Make it a local foodie ChristmasWed, 31 Dec 2014 22:15:09 GMTBy Elly Bailey
Yakima Magazine

Photos by ELLY BAILEY/Yakima magazine
Looking for local food gifts? Check out Local Yokel, 32 N. Front St. in Yakima, which sells an assortment of seasonal produce and local meat, cheeses and dairy items. Or get a custom gift basket full of local and regional goodies at Barrett Orchards’ Washington Fruit Place, 1209 Pecks Canyon Road.

Food is one of the most practical gifts out there — it’s a great gift for people who are easy to please as well as those folks on your list who are a little more difficult. And what better way to impress your friends and family than to send them a gift basket chock full of products that are made and grown right here in Yakima?
Christmas is a time when many of us indulge our sweet tooth (or our beer tooth, or wine tooth). For those of us of a certain age, there are certain sinful substances that are traditionally enjoyed this time of year, given as gifts, and maybe even consumed for breakfast.
Let’s start our indulgent journey with a stop at Boehm’s Candy at Chalet Place in Yakima. Owner Sharon Vance has an eye for good chocolates (she personally samples varieties of sweets like the chocolate-covered espresso beans they carry) and she also knows how to cater to her customers’ tastes during the holidays.
“People always call to find out if we have marzipan,” she said.
But there are other holiday traditions, too, like the candy “coal” for bad boys and girls (actually dark raisin clusters wrapped in black paper), and the old-fashioned ribbon candy the shop carries this time of year. And the Vances know their stuff: They’ve been here for 28 years in Yakima (including five years in their current location). Boehm’s also carries imported goodies, like julekaka bread (a Danish treat from a Ballard bakery) and ligonberry jam and straw Yule goats from Sweden. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today for you last-minute shoppers.
For the beer lover on your list, a stop at the Beer Shoppe on Yakima Avenue is a must. The store also provides some casual seating space and a bar where friends can sit and enjoy a fine brew, and they feature an astonishing array of imported beverages as well as over 20 beers on tap. The Shoppe also just started serving food a couple of weeks ago, so you can order items like nachos or a Chicago dog (or both) along with your brew.
Or if you have a DIY drinker on your list, you can check out the Yakima Valley Hop Shop and Brew Supply on Fruit Row in Yakima for home brewing supplies. For wine lovers, you’ll have to check out Stems on Yakima Avenue, which carries a variety of locally made wines, supplies and wine-themed gifts.
The Yakima Visitor’s Center at 101 N. Fair Ave., across the street from Target, is an excellent resource for local goods. The shop carries wares from local artisans, gifts for wine lovers, handmade photo cards, Chukkar Cherries items, Mick’s Pepper Jellies, and Big Papa’s sauces.
If you have a foodie/cook on your list, you should consider stopping by one of our local commercial kitchen supply stores, like URM on Fifth Avenue in Yakima. They sell a lot of metal food prep storage containers, but they also carry commercial pots and pans, barware, party supplies like vinyl table covers, pizza pans of all sizes (and even pizza screens, if you like your crust crispy). And, if you know a baker, they carry large tubs that would be perfect for large amounts of flour or sugar.
Deep Sea Deli is a busy place this time of year — locally owned and operated since 1973, it’s a shop that a lot of local seafood lovers have come to depend on. Danielle Shearer, the retail manager and buyer for the deli, said that she has been fielding a lot of questions lately about the shop’s truffle oils and salts (they also carry truffle butters). They also carry hard-to-find imported sauces used in Asian cooking.
But the star of the show at Deep Sea, is, of course, the seafood. They smoke several kinds of fish in-house, including steelhead, king salmon, sockeye and tuna — and trust us, it is to die for. The deli also carries a selection of cheeses, beer and wine — and you’ll have to check out the cooler on the back wall for things like demi glazes, potato lefse, calamari steaks and beefalo burgers. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up some Copper Pot caramels for dessert.
Drive downtown a few blocks after your stop at the deli for some fresh apples and winter squash from Local Yokel, located in the old train depot building next to North Town Coffee. Owner Ron Baron happened to be there while I was, and he was graciously indulgent about my obsession with their “grow wall,” a hydroponic setup in the shop’s south-facing window. “It’s a good conversation starter,” Baron admitted, noting that although the gloomy weather has slowed the plants down, plenty of people have been asking store staff about the setup.
Business is challenging for a produce-based store during the off season at times, but Yokel gets a lot of customers looking for locally sourced meats and dairy, and they have plenty of apples and winter squash in stock. Staff member Andy DeKorte said that shoppers are often surprised to learn the store carries things like eggs, duck and lamb, and they just started carrying oyster mushrooms that were grown by J&M Gourmet Mushrooms in Selah.
“A lot of people who are retired come in because they were raised on a farm, and they remember the way that pasture-raised chicken tastes,” Baron said. “That’s what they were used to — local food, off the farm, picked ripe — and they know where it came from.” He said he’s hoping that his business will provide a way for people busy with careers to enjoy the same garden-fresh produce and dairy that our grandparents did.
“A lot of our customers are pretty well-educated about food,” he said. “They’re the ones you see reading the labels in the supermarket aisles.”
And last, but not least, you can create your own foodie gift box at Washington Fruit Place (it’s up on Peck’s Canyon Road, above Fred Meyer). Owner Cheryl Barrett said she does a brisk business in shippable gift boxes this time of year, which contain items like cheeses, chocolates, and, of course, apples. While you’ve missed the deadline for Christmas shipping, the big red barn is a great place to stop in if you want to create your very own gift box.
“Some people really like to pick and choose what they put in,” she said. “So we tell them to fill it up and then we’ll make it look pretty.”
• This article originally appeared on yakimamagazine.com as part of its 12 Days of Yakima Christmas series.
• Yakima Magazine coordinator Elly Bailey has worked for the Yakima Herald-Republic since 2013. She can be reached at ebailey@yakimaherald.com....]]>http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/foodanddining/latestfoodanddining/2758902-8/stumped-on-last-minute-gifts-make-it-a-local
Savannah Tranchell/ValleyLife/FoodAndDining/LatestFoodAndDining/7293691@yakimaherald.comWed, 31 Dec 2014 22:15:09 GMT